Sask. watchdog says no charges warranted in death of man hit by RCMP officer driving to unrelated incident

Saskatchewan's Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) said Thursday there are "no grounds to believe an offence was committed" after investigating an incident where a man was fatally hit by an RCMP truck responding to a separate incident at high speeds.

SIRT is an independent civilian-led unit responsible for investigating incidents where people are hurt or killed during interactions with police in Saskatchewan.

It began investigating last year, after a Buffalo Narrows RCMP officer struck and killed a 31-year-old man with her vehicle on Aug. 29, 2024, while responding to an unrelated hit and run.

The officer was driving on a gravel road in "intermittent dense fog," at speeds ranging from 80 to 150 km/h "depending on the visibility," when she hit the man, according to the SIRT's report, released Thursday.

In the report, the SIRT said the call required an "urgent response" from the officer and "unquestionably justified" the officer speeding and using the vehicle's lights and sirens. The unrelated hit and run call reportedly left someone lying in the road.

The speed limit where the man was killed, on Highway 909 near the northern settlement of Bear Creek, was 80 km/h.

The SIRT report found the officer "demonstrated awareness" of the poor conditions and reacted appropriately by varying her speeds.

The officer hit the man at approximately 3:34 a.m. CST while he was lying on his back in the road dressed in black, according to the report.

The man was significantly injured at the time, but still breathing when the officer first attended to him, according to SIRT. His breathing and pulse stopped shortly afterwards. The investigated officer and a second RCMP officer, who arrived on the scene afterward, performed CPR. 

EMS arrived and pronounced the man dead at 4:31 a.m. CST.

"The affected person's presence on the highway, lying in the lane of travel while dressed in black, presented an unforeseen event that resulted in an unavoidable and tragic collision," SIRT wrote in the report.

No footage

SIRT said it interviewed multiple RCMP officers, including the officer being investigated, and seven civilian witnesses for its investigation.

It said there was no footage of the vehicle hitting the man, as the camera in the RCMP truck was "non-operational well in advance of the incident."

A collision reconstructionist examined the vehicle and the scene, according to the report.

Man had interacted with RCMP less than an hour before 

The man killed is believed to have interacted with RCMP earlier that evening, according to the report.

RCMP had pulled a truck truck over for an impaired driving investigation, the report said.

A passenger, believed to be the man later killed, fled the truck during the traffic stop, but was not pursued because he was "not subject to police detention at the time," SIRT said.

The fatal incident happened less than an hour later, approximately one kilometre from the location of the earlier traffic stop, SIRT said.