Police watchdog says officer not responsible for impaired driver death

Nova Scotia's police watchdog has ruled an RCMP officer who pursued an impaired driver in North Kentville last summer acted reasonably and will not face any charges in the driver's death.

In a report released Tuesday, Felix Cacchione, director of the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), says the officer had reasonable grounds to believe the man was driving impaired becausehis headlights were off and he was driving over the centre line. Cacchione also says the driver didn'tstop despite police pursuing him with emergency lights and sirens on.

"This fatal accident was caused by [the driver's] decision to operate the vehicle at high speeds while under the influence of alcohol and drugs and to flee the [police officer's] attempt to stop him," Cacchione says in the report.

"Other than some of the speeds attained during the pursuit, there is no evidence to indicate that the [officer] was operating his vehicle in a dangerous matter. There are no reasonable grounds to believe that the [officer] was criminally responsible for [the driver's] death."

Cacchione says a toxicology report showed the presence of alcohol, cocaine and cannabis in the driver's system.

The incident

The incident began around 2:20 a.m. on Aug. 25, 2019 when the RCMP officer was on patrol on Middle Dyke Roadin North Kentvilleand saw someone driving erratically.

In a news release later the same day, police said the driver accelerated through an intersection and lost control before crashing into a cement retaining wall.

Cacchione's report describes the incident in more detail, saying the driver exceeded speeds of 160 km/h during the police pursuit, went off the right side of the road onto a gravel shoulder and then turned left and went across two lanes of the road before crashing. Cacchione says the vehicle flipped over and stopped on its roof and the driver, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, was ejected.

The driver was declared dead at hospital. Apassenger survived but had to undergo surgery to repair fractured vertebrae.

Cacchione says the man was driving with asuspended licenseand didn't have insurance or registration for the vehicle.