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10/3/2005
Thornhill Teen and two men on motorcycle die
Were police chasing motorcycle?
Witness says police cruiser may have been in area Two investigators from SIU are probing crash JIM WILKES STAFF REPORTER Was a Toronto police cruiser chasing a speeding motorcycle when it slammed into a car, killing the 19-year-old motorist and both men on the motorcycle? That`s one of the questions the province`s Special Investigations Unit will be trying to resolve into the horrific crash early yesterday that littered a North York intersection with bodies and twisted metal debris.
A black 2002 Acura sedan was making a U-turn on Finch Ave. W. near Talbot Rd. about 1:30 a.m. when the westbound motorcycle slammed into the driver`s door, spinning the vehicle and ejecting its driver. The Thornhill teen died instantly. The motorcycle operator was thrown to the roadway and died immediately from massive injuries. His passenger was rocketed over the car and slid about 60 metres along Finch, finally coming to rest near the driveway of an upscale townhouse complex. He, too, was dead at the scene.
Passing motorists were powerless to give aid to any of the victims in a chaotic scene that one witness said looked like a bomb had torn apart the car, shredding metal and spraying the area near the North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church with broken glass and blood. The SIU investigates all incidents where an interaction between police and civilians results in serious injury or death. But both police and the provincial agency were tight-lipped about what role Toronto police may have played in the crash, on dry pavement five blocks west of Yonge St.
SIU spokesperson Rose Bliss issued a short statement yesterday saying two investigators were probing the crash, which shut down the intersection for about 12 hours. Bliss said the SIU wasn`t notified until nearly four hours later "when an independent witness said a (Toronto police) cruiser may have been in the area at the time of the collision." Names of the victims were being withheld by investigators.
Shawn Choi, whose house faces the accident scene, said he was awakened by the crash. "It was a loud bang," said Choi, 30. "No braking, no screeching of tires. Just an impact." He said he ran outside to try to help. "It was chaos, a lot of people were running around," he said. `But there wasn`t anything anybody could do." Choi said the first police he saw arrive at the scene were two plainclothes officers. He said they arrived about five minutes after the crash, about the same time a fire truck pulled up.
The first police cruisers with uniform officers arrived about three minutes after that, he said. In June, the SIU cleared a Toronto police officer of criminal liability in a chase that left two youths dead in a crash just a kilometre from yesterday`s accident scene. The 16-year-old driver and 15-year old passenger died April 6 this year when their car struck a tree near Kenneth Ave. about 3 a.m. as a cruiser gave chase.
SIU Director James Cornish concluded "the police never were very close to the car they pursued. "Indeed, they lost sight of the car very quickly, that is how much faster the car was going than the cruiser," he said in a report to the attorney general. "These officers did nothing that caused or contributed to this tragic and senseless loss of two young lives." Last Monday, a 20-year-old driver and his two teenaged passengers died in the same area when their car spun out of control and crashed into a house on Willowdale Ave, near Yonge and Finch.