'You don't go against a mother's gut feeling': Oakville mom gets answers on crash that killed her son

An Oakville mother whose two sons were hit by a car back in 2013 has finally got some of the answers she's been seeking about a police investigation that she says was inadequate.

One of Donna Stevenson's sons was killed and the other was severely injured in the incident.

"You don't go against a mother's gut feeling," Stevenson told CBC Toronto in an interview.

She says she knew there was something off about the way Durham Regional Police investigated the deadly accident that killed her son Joey — and she's been fighting for four years to prove it.

A small victory came just before Christmas. York Regional Police finished their investigation of the accident and found two Durham officers who were on the scene committed insubordination by not testing the driver for alcohol consumption.

The driver was never charged.

"I just knew and this is confirming it," said Stevenson from her home in Oakville. "The police should have done their job, I shouldn't be re-living the accident every day — I shouldn't be doing their work for them."

Investigation took nearly a year

CBC Toronto first told Stevenson's story in Feb. 2016, when she contacted the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), a civilian oversight agency that assigned York Regional Police to investigate the complaint.

It took just under a year for the force to return its findings, which said both officers did "commit insubordination" as they "disobeyed, omitted or neglected" to carry out a breath demand."

Stevenson still has questions about some of the findings — specifically the speed at which the car was going when it hit her two boys and the way the accident was reconstructed — so she has asked OIPRD for those answers.

At the time, the driver admitted to police he was going 60-65 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. The police report concluded he was going 40-45 km/h when he hit the boys.

In the initial report, Durham police noted where the two men wound up — one 75 metres from the collision site and another about 20 metres away. No analysis of these distances was done, according to the original report.

The York Regional Police report said the speed was "under estimated" in the Durham investigation, and that it did not agree with the methodology used to analyse the car's speed.

"I always taught my boys that you do the crime, you do the time," said Stevenson, a mother of four boys. "You need to be held accountable for what you do."

Complaint filed against Durham police chief

Stevenson has also filed a complaint against the chief of the Durham Regional Police. She said she wrote to him after the accident and he replied saying he would not be reopening the investigation, as it would result in the same conclusion.

In the YRP report, the Durham chief determined the allegations of insubordination would be "addressed by way of training" and deemed to be "of a less serious nature."

Calling the incident of a "less serious nature" was a slap in the face to Stevenson — who said her one son is dead and the other has metal plates in his body, a head injury and partial hearing.

In an email to CBCToronto , Durham Regional Police spokesperson Dave Selby said it would be "inappropriate" for the force to respond to questions as the case is under review by OIPRD.

Unable to work

Since Feb. 7, 2013, Stevenson's doctor hasn't been able to give her the all-clear to go back to work because he's concerned the stress the accident has caused could worsen her heart condition.

"I'm stuck at home, not working, not making any money," she said, adding she feels like a prisoner in her own house. She adds that if she could go back to work, she would at least have a change of atmosphere and not be reliving the accident every minute of the day.

"When I go to bed at night — boom — it's the first thing in my mind."

Stevenson says she wants justice for her boys — and that the driver responsible is charged. She said if the Durham police force had done their job she "would have mourned like a normal human being should have mourned a child and would have been getting on with [her] life."