One dead, four injured after police chase ends with two crashes in N.S.

One person is dead and four others are injured after a car involved in a police chase went off the road in western Nova Scotia.

A police vehicle followed a grey Honda Civic travelling at a high-speed in Wolfville, about an hour northwest of Halifax, shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, a Nova Scotia RCMP press release said.

The Mounties said the police vehicle was involved in a single vehicle crash while attempting to stop the car.

A few minutes later, officers responded to a report of a crash in nearby Grand Pré where the Honda Civic left the road and went over an embankment.

An 18-year-old man from Prospect Bay was pronounced dead at the scene, another occupant was airlifted to hospital with life-threatening injuries and the remaining three occupants were taken to hospital by ambulance.

The officer involved in the initial crash was also taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the Mounties said.

Nova Scotia’s police watchdog will review evidence from the collisions to determine if it should investigate, the release said.

The incident is the second time in as many weeks when a vehicle collision occurred after a police chase in Nova Scotia.

Halifax police referred a hit and run on Oct. 10 to the province’s police watchdog after a truck being pursued by a police vehicle in Dartmouth collided with another vehicle at an intersection. The truck fled the scene, and the driver of the other vehicle sustained serious injuries.

Earlier this year, Quebec’s police disciplinary tribunal suspended three provincial police officers and two Montreal police officers over a 2018 police chase that left a Montreal woman seriously injured.

The tribunal concluded the officers should not have pursued the suspect due to the risks to the public of continuing the chase through a densely populated urban area. The ruling also ordered four of the officers to complete additional training for police pursuits.