To summarize, a vehicle with two men in it was stopped as part of a RIDE check by the Ontario Provincial Police. Drugs were found, and while the passenger was being arrested, the driver fled the scene, headed west down Highway 17–part of the Trans-Canada Highway–towards Sturgeon Falls (the main town in the larger municipality of West Nipissing.)
The OPP notified the West Nipissing Police, who put down a spike belt. The driver hit the spike belt but kept going, until he hit an eastbound car. Both drivers are now dead, and the Special Investigations Unit is investigating.
I’m not sure which party here should take most of the blame. Highway 17 between North Bay and Sturgeon Falls is a fairly busy stretch of highway and is for the most part flat and straight. So I’m not sure that the police putting down a spike belt without closing the highway was particularly well thought out. OTOH, running away from the cops like that isn’t very smart either.
We had something similar but not identical happen here in Barrie not too long ago. Rush hour on a Friday , the cops are running speed traps in various locations and a 15 year old kid blows through a trap in a stolen car. Cops give chase and the kid attempts to go through a red light and T-bones a car driven by a 48 year old man just coming home from Honda in Aliston.
So this kid, basically underage , unlicensed driver, car theft, fleeing from the cops, speeding will get a slap on the wrist and the driver of the other vehicle got a death sentence.
I gave it some thought and basically came to the conclusion that the police did not know the kids age, may not have even mattered but I havent talked with anyone on the force yet and if he stole a vehicle once, he would have done it again at some point. He met all the requirements to start this tradgedy but I seriously hope the Barrie PD take a long hard look at this one.
Your question, the people in the vehicle are the ones primarily at fault. So 95 percent runner and maybe 5 percent cops. They already had the license plate I imagine, if the passenger was arrested.
Replying to my own post here, but on re reading the op, the passenger was not at that point actually arrested, so the plate thing probably does not enter the equation.
Texas just bumped up the penalty for Evading Arrest, such that it’s an enhanceable offense now. Formerly, regular Evading (without a vehicle) was a class B misdemeanor, but it is now a class A, same as Resisting Arrest. And a second Evading is a State Jail Felony on foot, a third degree felony in a vehicle, or a second degree felony if someone dies during the flight from custody. I’ve been told that the reason it was increased was that a police officer was killed during a recent chase.