SIU not charging OPP officer who rear-ended stopped SUV on Hwy. 400 and injured two people

A damaged OPP cruiser and a GMC Terrain were involved in a rear-end collision on Nov. 28, 2025. (SIU)

The province’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is not laying charges against an Ontario Provincial Police officer who struck a stopped SUV on a highway last November that left two people seriously injured.

The collision happened in the morning of Nov. 28, 2025, on the northbound lanes of Highway 400.

According to the SIU, the driver of a GMC Terrain began to lose power while on the highway and had to stop in a left lane, approximately 50 metres north of where the westbound Highway 401 off-ramp merged.

The driver activated his emergency flashers, got out of the vehicle, and popped the hood to investigate what had happened, the SIU said.

Shortly after, the driver had closed the hood when, the SIU said, a marked OPP cruiser that had just entered the highway slammed into the back of the Terrain, propelling him backward.

The driver suffered fractures on his right leg and right hand, the SIU said. A passenger in the Terrain also sustained multiple fractures.

In the report released on Saturday, SIU Director Joseph Martino said there were no reasonable grounds to believe the OPP officer, identified as the subject official (SO), had committed a criminal offence in the collision.

“It remains unclear why the SO did not take notice of a stopped vehicle in his lane of traffic with its emergency flashers activated,” Martino wrote in his report, noting that the officer, as his legal right, refused to be interviewed or release his notes on the incident.

The director said that unlike the SO, other motorists were able to avoid the Terrain.

“It may well be that the SO was simply not paying sufficient attention to the road ahead of him as he travelled northbound in one of the two ramp lanes to Highway 400 from westbound Highway 401,” Martino said.

“On the other hand, there is nothing in the evidence to reasonably conclude that the SO’s indiscretion was anything more than a momentary lapse in attention, which the case law makes clear will only rarely amount to a marked departure from a reasonable standard of care.”

Martino added there was also no indication of any questionable driving by the SO prior to the collision. He said the in-car camera from the OPP cruiser depicted that the officer was travelling at reasonable speeds and in full control of the vehicle.

“It is also worth noting that as the SO negotiated the curve on the ramp and began to straighten out, he was no more than 100 metres or so from the stopped Terrain ahead of him. That left the officer only seconds to process what he was observing ahead of him and take the necessary evasive action,” Martino wrote.

“While not excusing the SO from his role in the collision, this is important context going to the momentary nature of the officer’s inattention.”