TRACY HUGHES
Black Press
A Salmon Arm RCMP officer charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle will face trial in the fall.
Const. Micah Chan was charged after an investigation by B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office, a unit which reviews cases involving deaths or serious injuries involving members of the police.
Chan was involved in an alleged high-speed police pursuit of a vehicle driven by Courtney Eggen, 21, of Cherryville, June 20, 2013. Eggen crashed into a parked dump truck in Salmon Arm’s industrial park and died at the scene.
A trial has been set to begin at the Salmon Arm law courts Oct. 20. It is scheduled to take seven days and would wrap up Oct. 31.
The B.C. Criminal Justice Branch, which laid the charge, issued a statement that despite the fatality, the evidence “does not provide a substantial likelihood of conviction for dangerous driving causing death.”
This is because “the prosecution cannot prove that the officer’s driving conduct factually and legally contributed to the crash of the second vehicle and the death of its driver.”
Chan is on duty at the Salmon Arm detachment pending the trial.
