Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has cleared police of any wrongdoing in the drowning death of a driver whose vehicle plunged into the water following an attempted traffic stop in Greater Napanee last April. According to the SIU’s final report released on Tuesday, an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer attempted to stop a driver travelling in a black Subaru Forester on the evening of April 21 on westbound Highway 33 near Bath Road. The SIU says the driver, a 62-year-old woman, “had been drinking and was intoxicated at the time.” After failing to stop for the officer who attempted to pull her over, SIU investigators say she was weaving in and out of traffic, swerved into a ditch before recorrecting her vehicle and swiped a guardrail before entering a grassy field. The SIU says the driver lost control of the vehicle as it continued in the grass, struck a metal fence and fell into the Lennox Generating Station’s water reservoir that discharges into Lake Ontario. An investigation found the woman drowned after her car became submerged in the water. No one else was inside the vehicle. In its final report, the SIU concluded there were no reasonable grounds to believe the police officer involved in the traffic stop committed any criminal offence in connection to the death. “On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the SO committed a criminal offence in connection with the collision and the Complainant’s death,” SIU director Joseph Martino said in the report. “I am satisfied that the SO was justified in trying to stop the Complainant, initially for a potential traffic infraction but soon enough because of indications she was driving dangerously and could be impaired.” Martino says the officer also conducted himself with due care for public safety, saying that while the officer’s speed was high at times, it did not compromise other drivers on the road. The driver was not identified. The SIU is an independent agency that investigates the conduct of police officers that may have resulted in a death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.
