SIU clears police in high-speed crash that killed two teens

The province’s Special Investigations Unit has determined there are no reasonable grounds to lay charges against Waterloo Regional Police following the deaths of two teenagers last fall.

In a report released exactly one year after the incident, SIU Director Tony Loparco says 15-year-old Nathan Wehrle of Cambridge and 16-year-old Taryn Hewitt of London were killed when the stolen car they were in slammed head-on into a transport truck on Highway 6 near Campbellville Road.

The SIU report says a 911 call was made at 9:33 a.m. from a witness who told police he had just seen “a man beating the living daylights out of a young lady.” The witness reported the man then forced the woman into a red Pontiac.

At 9:47, police began a pursuit of the vehicle and were coordinating with OPP and Hamilton police to arrange for a tire deflation device when the fatal crash occurred.

The SIU determined the cause of the crash was due to a loss of control by the driver of the car, which it claims reached speeds of 126 km/h during the course of the 10-minute pursuit.

The SIU says prior to the fatal crash, Hewitt sent a text to her mother which read, “I’m so sorry for everything, we stole a car and we’re in a high speed chase.”

Loparco concluded the conduct of the police officers involved in the pursuit did not contribute to the “catastrophic outcome” and that the age and inexperience of the 15-year-old driver being pursued by police greatly increased the risk of an accident.

“The driver of the Pontiac … was clearly a troubled young man in a difficult situation. He was driving a stolen car, had assaulted his girlfriend, and was fleeing from the police,” the report stated.

The SIU is an arms-length agency that investigates incidents involving police in which someone is killed, injured or accused of sexual assault.