Investigations into recent fatal crashes will take time to be completed

Jeff Green | Jun 12, 2024

Early this week, a Frontenac OPP release came out announcing that an arrest had been made in a fatal collision case. The arrest was not related to either of the recent fatal incidents in Frontenac County. It was neither the car crash on Burke Settlement Road in Central Frontenac, nor the boat crash on Bobs Lake in Central Frontenac.

The incident took place much earlier than either of these, it took place in January. Here is the release: 

The Frontenac Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has laid a charge in connection with a fatal collision on Bedford Road, just north of the village of Sydenham. At approximately 11:30 a.m. on January 5, 2024, a vehicle collided with a pedestrian who had been walking along the shoulder of the roadway. The pedestrian was fatally injured. The driver stayed at the scene and assisted officers with the investigation.

As a result of the investigation, Jordan Ward, age 38 from South Frontenac Township, has been charged under the Highway Traffic Act with Careless Driving Causing Death.

The accused is scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Kingston on July 8, 2024.

Frontenac Detachment members were assisted in the investigation by an OPP Collision Reconstructionist, the Technical Collision Investigation Team, South Frontenac Fire Department, Frontenac County Paramedics and the Office of the Chief Coroner.

The Ontario Provincial Police is committed to public safety on our highways and preventing serious collisions through visible patrol and enforcement initiatives."

For the family of the victim, in the above case, the arrest of the driver may bring some comfort, or it may not. As in the recent incidents, the impact of these kinds of sudden deaths on close family and friends is devastating, and has a ripple effect through the entire community

The fact that it took six months for charges to be laid in the January incident demonstrates that it takes time, and care, for police to determine when to lay charges in these cases and what the appropriate charges are. As the release points out, the driver of the car did not run away, he "stayed at the scene and assisted officers in the investigation.”

As OPP have indicated in media reports, they have no timeframe for when they will decide whether charges are to be laid in the Bobs lake or Burke Settlement Road incidents.

In a published report last Thursday (June 6) , the Kingstonist quoted Constable Robert Martell from the Frontenac OPP about the Bob’s Lake crash. Martell said “there are currently no charges laid in this incident,” and “the investigation is ongoing and charges may be laid at a later date.” Martell also said that beyond the three fatalities resulting from the crash “everyone else involved is recovering”.

The factors being included in the investigation, according to the report, include: speed, alcohol/drug impairment, safety equipment used or not used, weather, operator requirement for boats, time of day, darkness, underwater hazards, navigation tools or indicators, and operator ability.

Given the complexity of both the Bobs Lake boating case and the Burke Settlement Road vehicle case, where reconstructions have and interviews with survivors need to be compared and considered, and where the determinations about appropriate charges are complex and will be scrutinised by those close to the cases and the general public, the OPP have every reason to take as much time as they need to get everything right, and to make sure any charges that are laid end up leading to success in court.

It appears it will be a matter of months, rather than weeks, before we hear more about these cases.

Meanwhile, the families continue to grieve.

(Correction – In an article last week in the Frontenac News, the names of two of the victims from the Bobs Lake crash were incorrect in the print edition. The correct names are: Juliette Cote, Riley Orr, and Caila Bearman. The New deeply regrets the error, and apologises to everyone involved.