CANADIAN POLICE HAVE said no charges will be brought against a police officer involved in a fatal crash last year which resulted in the death of a young Irishman.
Brendan Keogh (29) from Mullinalaghta, Co Longford was struck by an unmarked Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) SUV in the town of Squamish, British Columbia on the evening of 13 March 2018.
Mr Keogh was taken to a Vancouver hospital in a critical condition. He never regained consciousness and was subsequently transferred to Dublin’s Mater Hospital where he later passed away.
In a report published on Monday, Chief Civilian Director Ronald J. MacDonald said that the “evidence collected does not provide grounds to consider any charges against any officer.”
The investigation report, conducted by Canada’s Independent Investigations Office (IIO), which oversees police in British Columbia, has said that that the officer in question was driving under the speed limit when her vehicle reached the intersection on Garabaldi Way, passed through a green light, and struck Mr Keogh.
The report found that Mr Keogh “would have been very difficult for a driver to see” due to the collision occurring on a rainy night and because Mr Keogh was wearing dark clothes.
“There is nothing in the evidence collected that suggests [the officer] was driving in a manner that would appear to a reasonable person to be [any] way dangerous or without proper care and attention,” MacDonald said.
The report notes that the “affected person” – Mr Keogh - was sober at the time of the collision and that he “made a tragic error when he crossed the highway, against the traffic signal, on a dark and rainy night, in dark clothing.”
MacDonald said he does “not consider that an officer may have committed an offence under any enactment and therefore the matter will not be referred to Crown counsel for consideration of charges.”
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