Const. Adrian Oliver was speeding without his sirens or emergency lights on at the time of a head-on collision that killed him last month, according to an ongoing Surrey RCMP investigation.
Oliver, whose funeral was attended by more than 2,000 RCMP officers and thousands of mourners, was trying to find a recently stolen pickup truck, according to the GPS and video data uncovered in the preliminary investigation.
The Surrey RCMP鈥檚 Criminal Collision Investigation Team will continue to try to 鈥渃learly establish what may have been occurring just prior to the collision,鈥� Surrey鈥檚 top Mountie Supt. Bill Fordy said in a news release Friday evening.
The RCMP鈥檚 account matches aspects of what the badly shaken driver of the semi-truck that smashed into the 28-year-old constable鈥檚 unmarked cruiser last month.
Harjeet Loty, who has been updated on the investigation according to the RCMP release, said Oliver entered the intersection without his emergency lights or sirens activated early in the morning of Nov. 13.
Loty said he saw Oliver鈥檚 car coming toward him, signalling to make a right-hand turn, but he said the car did not turn and the two vehicles collided. Oliver died in the crash, which left the car鈥檚 front end a heap of burnt and twisted metal. Loty got bruises on his chest and needed eight stitches in his arm.
Oliver was a second-generation RCMP officer. His father, Chief Supt. Joseph Oliver, serves in Ottawa as director general of border integrity in the RCMP鈥檚 federal and international operations department. Oliver鈥檚 identical twin brother Ben is also a member of the force and is based in the Lower Mainland.
The B.C.-born Oliver was educated in Ottawa and joined the RCMP in December 2008. When he joined the Surrey detachment in June 2009 it was his first posting.
