TORONTO — Ontario’s police watchdog has criminally charged two officers in a wrong-way freeway pursuit that resulted in a crash and killed 4 individuals, together with an toddler and his grandparents.
The Particular Investigations Unit says two Durham regional cops have every been charged with three counts of legal negligence inflicting demise and two counts of legal negligence inflicting bodily hurt.
The April 2024 crash on Freeway 401 east of Toronto raised questions on why police allegedly pursued a theft suspect into oncoming visitors on one in all Canada’s busiest highways.
The SIU says the following six-vehicle crash killed a 60-year-old man, 55-year-old woman, their toddler grandson and the 21-year-old driver of a cargo van chased by police.
The watchdog says three different individuals have been severely injured, together with a passenger within the cargo van.
The SIU says an off-duty officer first reported an alleged theft at a Clarington, Ont., liquor retailer earlier than officers noticed the suspect van and commenced their pursuit, winding via a number of streets earlier than the van obtained on the freeway close to Steveson Street in Oshawa.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 17, 2025.
The Canadian Press
