No action taken against police officer who drove wrong way on Vancouver street: Complaints Commissioner

The Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner (OPCC) says there won’t be any repercussions after a VPD officer drove a cruiser the wrong way on a street in downtown Vancouver last December — without its police lights on.

The OPCC tells CityNews that it has finished its investigation and won’t be taking any further action.

Edward Zhang says his wife was driving west along Dunsmuir Street when they crossed Burrard, where the road takes a slight bend.

“At first we didn’t notice there was a car travelling against traffic until it came really close to us,” he recalled last year, noting he was in the passenger’s seat at the time.

The incident was caught on the couple’s dashcam. It shows the VPD cruiser coming right at them, with the police lights off.

Both vehicles can be seen swerving away from one another, with Zhang’s car almost hitting another vehicle to its right.

It was only as the near-miss was happening that Zhang says he and his wife realized it was a VPD car. The cruiser’s lights weren’t on until the moment both cars swerved.

“And we were like, that doesn’t make any sense, because this is a one-way street for decades. The local police shouldn’t not know it’s a one-way street. We were quite terrified because we almost hit another car to our right,” he recalled.

Zhang thought it might have been drunk driver or someone unfamiliar with the local roads.

“When he flipped the light, we were like, ‘You’re kidding.’”

At the time, VPD’s Sergeant Steve Addison said the department was investigating the incident. He referred CityNews to the Motor Vehicle Act, saying Section 122(1) “outlines the circumstances in which the operator of a police vehicle may disregard rules and traffic control devices governing direction of movement or turning in specified directions.”

“B.C. Emergency Vehicle Driving Regulation outlines circumstances in which the operator of a police vehicle may disregard the provisions of Section 122(1) of the Motor Vehicle Act without activating lights and sirens,” the statement from Vancouver police continued.