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Officer not at fault for life-threatening e-scooter injury in Castlegar

Scooter injury not cop's fault

British Columbia's police watchdog has exonerated an RCMP officer following an arrest in Castlegar last month that left a woman with life-threatening injuries from an e-scooter crash.

On June 12 at about 11:40 p.m., a Castlegar RCMP officer attempted to stop a woman who was riding an e-scooter on Castlegar's Columbia Avenue. The woman allegedly had an outstanding warrant for her arrest, and the officer attempted to arrest her.

The Independent Investigations Office says “an interaction occurred,” and the woman suffered a “potentially life-threatening injury.”

In a statement released Tuesday, the IIO said the woman's injuries were “self-inflicted.”

“Statements provided to the IIO from both the woman and the subject officer confirm that the injury sustained by the woman was self-inflicted,” the IIO said.

“The officer provided medical assistance and called Emergency Health Services who transported the woman to the hospital.”

The IIO did not provide any details about the extent of the woman's injuries, or how she suffered them, only noting that she had been driving the e-scooter “erratically.” The IIO did not issue a fulsome public report on the incident.

The IIO investigates any incident involving B.C. police officers that results in death or serious harm. In this case, the watchdog concludes the officer acted appropriately and his actions “did not play a role in [the woman's] injury.”

The rollout of e-scooters in Kelowna has been controversial for weeks, with Kelowna General Hospital's chief of orthopedic surgery calling them "fracture machines."



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