Off-duty officer won’t face charges in Porters Lake crash
Posted Jun 17, 2025 01:53:40 PM.
Last Updated Jun 17, 2025 02:01:34 PM.
Nova Scotia’s police watchdog says it has found no reasonable grounds to lay charges against an off-duty Halifax Regional Police officer involved in a serious crash earlier this year.
According to the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT), the RCMP was called to the crash on Myra Road in Porters Lake on January 24.
“An adult male was parked on the side of the road and was out of his vehicle and partially on the road, tending to a passenger in the backseat when he was struck and seriously injured by a vehicle driving by,” SiRT wrote in a media release. “That vehicle was being driven by an off-duty HRP officer.”
The watchdog says the man was seriously hurt, sustaining injuries to his leg, pelvis and head and was flown to hospital by a Life Flight helicopter.
The off-duty officer was not injured and it was confirmed that alcohol was not a factor in the crash, SiRT wrote.
A witness, identified in the SiRT report as the passenger in the vehicle of the man who was struck, said the man had pulled over to clean up the car after her baby daughter vomited in the back seat.
The off-duty officer, meantime was reportedly heard saying “I’m so sorry” at the scene, and said he did not see the man, questioning why he was in the “middle of the road.”
“Witnesses describe the SO’s (subject officer’s) driving as normal for the circumstances, and as noted above, there is no evidence to indicate he was speeding, driving erratically, or operating his vehicle out of the ordinary,” reads the official SiRT report into the crash. “Although an unfortunate accident took place, I cannot find that he intentionally put anyone at risk or engaged in dangerous behaviour.”
SiRT is responsible for investigating matters involving death, serious injury or other matters of public interest involving police officers.
