It happened in the city of Ottawa in Canada recently, close to the University of Ottawa. A white delivery van was caught on a rear-facing dashcam, deliberately veering his vehicle into puddles on the road to soak pedestrians with the spray. Video footage of the van can be seen in this article.

When the video soon went viral, outrage ensued over the incident, leading to the van driver losing his job. However, the driver will apparently not face any criminal charges, despite his anti-social behaviour in splashing the unsuspecting pedestrians and soaking them.

Van driver sacked for splashing pedestrians

As reported by CBC News, Black & McDonald, the company who own the van, made a post to their Facebook page, noting that the van driver is no longer employed by the company. In their post, they apologised to everyone impacted by the Ottawa incident by the “unacceptable driving” of one of their employees.

The company’s statement went on to say that this was an isolated incident and that they had terminated the van driver’s employment with the company. The spokesperson added that Black & McDonald were co-operating with local police over the unacceptable incident.

The 45-second video clip, posted on 27 July 2018 has received 1,211,542 views since it was posted on YouTube.

Taken using a rear-facing dashcam, it shows the unnamed van driver deliberately veering towards the puddles next to the kerb to soak pedestrians on a rainy day. As the clip ends, it clearly shows the logo of the company on the side of the van.

No criminal charges for van driver’s actions

As reported by the Ottawa Sun, police said the van driver will not face criminal charges for his actions, saying that losing his job was punishment enough.

Sgt. Mark Gatien said in a media statement that they consider the case closed. He said the actions by the man’s employer should be enough of a lesson for the man and any viewers of the video and readers of the story.

Many on social media praised Black & McDonald’s swift response to the issue. One tweet stated that if you splash pedestrians in the UK, you can face a £5,000 fine for your trouble.

Other Twitter users commented, including the BBC reporter who wrote about the incident, saying he was forced to use the world “fuming” in his article about the van driver’s actions.

Other Twitter posts mentioned that the van driver was fired for his "mischievous actions" in splashing the pedestrians.
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