The Independent Investigations Office has cleared two Nanaimo RCMP officers in the death of an impaired driver.

By NanaimoNewsNOW staff

OFFICERS CLEARED

Nanaimo RCMP officers cleared in death of impaired driver

May 14, 2019 | 4:05 AM

NANAIMO — Independent investigators say two Nanaimo RCMP officers did everything they could to prevent the death of an intoxicated man who later passed away.

The report released Tuesday, May 14 by the Independent Investigations Office said the two officers trying to take a breathalyzer test of the drunk man didn’t interfere with his health and it was pneumonia which claimed his life in hospital.

The officers were called to investigate a drunk driver around 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 28, 2018.

They found a damaged car missing a tire which had crashed into a utility pole. The report said the officers commented how they had rarely seen someone so obviously drunk.

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The driver failed roughly 15 breathalyzer tests.

During the tests and conversations around the car, the two Nanaimo RCMP officers noted the driver was coughing and he told them he was dealing with “a respiratory thing right now.”

After being arrested for failing to supply a breath sample, the driver was placed in the back of a police car and told he would be going to the drunk tank.

Moments later, one of the officers called an ambulance after the drivers’ eyes started rolling into the back of his head. An ambulance was quickly called.

We need an ambulance here now. This guy’s gone into cardiac arrest and I think he’s dying here._{Nanaimo RCMP officer}

The driver was taken out of the back of the police car and given chest compressions until paramedics arrived.

He was declared dead later in the morning at the hospital. An autopsy showed it was a severe case of pneumonia which gave him breathing difficulties.

The IIO, who is called every time someone is injured or killed in relation to a police force, investigated if it was the repeated breathalyzer tests which led to the drivers death due to his pneumonia and poor health.

“There is no evidence that either officer did anything that caused (the driver’s) death or failed to do anything that could be reasonably be expected of them, that might have prevented it,” the report said.

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