No charges will be laid against a Nakusp RCMP officer following a fatal crash last year.
The officer was following a stolen vehicle on Nov. 25, 2024, when the suspect driver lost control, crashed, and was fatally injured.
The Independent Investigations Office looked into the incident, and determined there were reasonable grounds to believe the officer may have committed a Motor Vehicle Act offence. They submitted a report to the BC Prosecution Service in August 2025.
Today, prosecutors said they have concluded the available evidence does not meet the charge assessment standard. They feel there is no substantial likelihood of conviction.
Neither the name of the officer nor the person who died has been released.
The incident
According to a backgrounder provided by the BC Prosecution Service, the officer tried to stop a truck on Highway 23 that had been reported stolen that morning from Nelson.
The officer made a U-turn, turned on their lights and siren, and started following the truck onto Highway 6. The police car reached a top speed of 130 km/h in an area with a limit of 60 km/h. The truck driver sped past a school bus and then lost control on a curve. The truck went off the road into a ditch and flipped over. The driver died at the scene. A passenger was not hurt.
Potential charges considered in this case were careless driving and excessive speeding under the Motor Vehicle Act. The Independent Investigations Office did not recommend any charges under the Criminal Code or the Motor Vehicle Act related to the driver’s death.
Video footage obtained from a home across from the crash site showed other vehicles travelling quickly around the same corner shortly before the accident, and a witness said that it was common for people to drive above the 60 km/h speed limit.
Statements were taken from the passenger in the truck and another person driving nearby. The passenger suggested the truck sped up to 140 to 160 km/h once the driver realized the police car was following them. The other witness said the police car turned the corner “at a reasonable rate,” while the truck was going “very fast.”
A forensic analyst concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to accurately determine the speed of the truck at any point.
The analysis
The BC Prosecution Service says the evidence shows the police car travelled above the speed limit for about one minute while it was following the truck.
But apart from speed, they found no evidence that the officer’s driving otherwise breached the Motor Vehicle Act. They said the offence of careless driving would only be established by evidence that showed the officer’s speed was excessive relative to the road, traffic, visibility, or weather conditions.
The Motor Vehicle Act allows police officers to exceed the speed limit in certain circumstances so long as they drive with regard for safety.
RCMP policy prohibits police from getting into car chases where the increased risk to public safety outweighs the need to immediately arrest someone.
Prosecutors say the evidence wasn’t sufficient to establish the officer was technically pursing the truck, but rather is consistent with the officer trying to close the gap between the two vehicles and pull the truck over.
Prosecutors noted that the highway was “relatively isolated” with light traffic and no pedestrians were present. They concluded those factors, combined with the relatively brief period that the officer was speeding with their lights and siren activated, suggests the risk posed by the officer’s conduct was minimal and, under the circumstances, there was no substantial likelihood of conviction for careless driving or excessive speeding.
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