The province’s police watchdog has terminated an investigation into the injuries a 24-year-old man suffered earlier this month when OPP used a spike belt to try stop a stolen vehicle on Highway 401 near London.
Middlesex OPP spotted the stolen vehicle in the westbound lanes of the highway near Putnam Road around 8:40 p.m. on November 3. The male driver pulled the vehicle over after hitting a spike belt police had put down in the area of Colonel Talbot Road. The driver ran from the vehicle, while a 19-year-old passenger was arrested without incident.
While trying to get away from officers, the vehicle driver fell in a ditch and fractured his wrist, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) determined. Police, with the help of the canine unit, found the man inside an unlocked vehicle at a nearby farmhouse.
A police dog bit the man in his left bicep prior to the arrest. He was taken to hospital for treatment.
“It is apparent that there is manifestly nothing to investigate as far as any potential criminal liability on the part of the officers is concerned in connection with the wrist injury. No police officers were present or in the vicinity when the man fell in a ditch and injured his wrist," SIU Interim Director Joseph Martino said in a statement.
He went on to note the injury from the dog bite was superficial and required nothing more than to be cleaned and bandaged.
"It, unlike the left wrist fracture, does not constitute a serious injury within the meaning of the SIU’s statutory jurisdiction under section 113 of the Police Services Act. Consequently, the investigation is hereby discontinued, and the file is closed,” said Martino.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.
