A Surrey cop involved in an accident five years ago was not at fault, a court has ruled.
On Sept. 12, 2007, RCMP Const. Kerri Parrish was heading through an intersection against the red light when Prem Singh smashed into her cruiser.
Parrish was on her way to a high-priority call at the time, an instance where a man with a knife was going to harm a child.
“According to Constable Parrish, based on what she had been told by her dispatcher, she had reasonable grounds to believe there was a risk of great harm to the child at the location involved in the call, and that outweighed the potential harm to the general public,” Justice Elaine Adair wrote in her finding last Tuesday.
Parrish said she was responding with lights and sirens activated.
While there was no dispute in court about whether her lights were flashing, lawyers for the two parties hotly contested whether the siren was activated.
If her siren was going, Parrish would have had the right of way. If not, she would have been at fault in the accident.
Singh says he suffered soft tissue damage and was seeking $45,000 to $60,000 in damages.
The judge had to weigh the decision based on the credibility of the two parties.
“I have concluded that Mr. Singh’s memory is fragile and not very reliable,” Adair wrote. “I find that Constable Parrish was proceeding cautiously across the intersection, with her emergency lights and siren activated, and her conduct was consistent with that of a reasonable officer acting reasonably…”
Singh’s case was dismissed.
