RCMP charge man in connection with head-on crash on Highway 102 near Miller Lake

Halifax RCMP have charged a 35-year-old man in connection with a head-on collision on a section of divided highway last October.

Acting on tips and forensic evidence gathered at the scene, police tracked down Stephen Andrew Coleman at a Halifax County hotel Tuesday evening.

He has been charged with leaving the scene of a collision that resulted in bodily harm, criminal negligence causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing bodily harm and possession of stolen property under $5,000.

On the morning of Oct. 28, police had received reports of a blue Toyota Echo — which turned out to have been stolen — speeding and being driven dangerously on Windmill Road in Dartmouth and on Highway 118. The licence plate on the car was also reported stolen.

At about 9:25 a.m. the car was driving the wrong way in the Halifax-bound lanes of Highway 102 near Miller Lake when it collided with a Jeep Wrangler. Dashcam video of the crash as it happened was widely circulated on social media at the time.

The driver of the Echo fled into the woods. A search by RCMP and a police dog was unsuccessful.

A passenger in the Jeep, a 60-year-old woman from Bible Hill, was seriously injured in the collision. The driver, a 38-year-old woman, and a passenger, a 33-year-old woman, both from Truro, had minor injuries. 

Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay said investigators used fingerprints and information obtained from two cellphones seized from the Echo to help identify Coleman as a suspect, along with tips from the public.

“It was a lengthy investigation,” Tremblay said. “It was complex, the lengths they went through to identify a suspect.”

 He wouldn’t say whether Coleman was living at the hotel or just there temporarily.

Coleman appeared in court Wednesday and was remanded into custody. He will return to Halifax provincial court next Tuesday.