Student hit during cop chase

By Allan Woods

A second-year dance student has missed a week’s worth of classes and rehersals after she was hit by a stolen car during a police chase.

Kelly Steadman, 20, is in good physical condition now, but said she may hire a lawyer if she suffers delayed injuries due to whiplash.

Steadman was hit by a car fleeing police on the corner of Gerrard Street East and Jarvis Street last Thursday afternoon.

“It could have been bad and it still could be bad,” said Steadman, who was taken to Mount Sinai hospital, treated and released later that day.

“When I’m walking past the intersection I’m not very relaxed,” Steadman said. “It’s a dodgy situation.”

Steadman was chatting with a friend on her way home from the Metro Toronto Reference Library at Yonge and Bloor Streets when the accident occurred.

Witnesses said the petite dancer was standing at the back of a group of about eight to 10 people, when a Honda Accord travelling west on Gerrard struck a southbound Oldsmobile. The Honda mounted the curb and hit Steadman.

“I heard a screech and a crash and then I was flying,” she said. “I landed by the door. I think I blacked out for two seconds.”

She said she was in shock but knew her injuries weren’t serious.

“She did a cartwheel and just landed,” said Nancy Karpus, a motorist who witnessed the accident and stopped to help Steadman. “She just sat there not moving, but she wasn’t bleeding.”

The driver of the Oldsmobile, 43-year-old Stan Nanu, escaped the accident uninjured.

The police chase began on Bloor Street between Sherbourne and Parliament Streets, as officers from 51 Division attempted to stop a Honda Accord believed to be stolen.

Police followed the car across the Bloor Viaduct and south on Broadview Avenue to Gerrard Street East.

At the intersection, the Honda clipped a male pedestrian, who was not seriously injured.

Police say a man fled on foot from the scene of the accident on Jarvis and Gerrard Streets toward Yonge Street, but was caught minutes later.

Robert Andrew Browett, 29, or Toronto, is charged with theft and possession of a stolen vehicle over $1,000, two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, two counts of failing to remain at the scene of an accident and failing to stop for police.