The motorcycle crash near Penticton that claimed the life of a West Kelowna man was not the fault of RCMP, said the Independent Investigation Office.
A report released on Friday by the IIO confirmed it will not proceed with an investigation into a Penticton RCMP officer’s involvement into the May 11 crash where Clint Schoening died and his wife, Crystal Sylvester, sustained serious injuries.
Information obtained from the RCMP in-car video camera that was mounted in the officers vehicle showed that a motorcycle registered a speed of 137 kilometres while travelling north on Eastside Road passed the officer at 8:52:08 p.m. Seconds later the officer activated his emergency lights and at 8:52:16 p.m. a second motorcycle travelling north passed him. The officer waited until the second bike passed before turning the police vehicle around to travel northbound. At 8:52:59 p.m. the officer then passed the second motorcycle that had pulled over at the side of the road, but the first motorcycle was not visible. The officer then turned off the emergency lights and braked for a curve in the road.
At 8:53:12 p.m. the officer rounded the curve in the road and observed a “large dust cloud” ahead of him. He re-activated his emergency lights and 14 seconds later arrived at the scene of the crash.
According to the analysis, the total time from the first sight of the motorcycle until the crash was 67 seconds. The traffic reconstruction analyst determined that the motorcycle was a considerable distance north of the officer when he first activated the emergency lights.
“While the crash did result in death and other serious harm to the affected person, the Chief Civilian Director determined that the officer’s actions were non-contributory in the crash. The IIO file will be closed with no further action,” said the report.
