Jesse Eccles cherishes his blue Subaru BRZ. In April, he’d paid a Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada mechanic quite a bit to keep it running right. As he drove home, he was careful—keeping to the speed limit, keeping his distance from cars in front of him, and obeying stop signs.

It took a single officer in an unmarked officer to total Eccles’ BRZ. In less than a minute after he’d left the repair shop, a security camera caught the officer blowing through the stop sign that would have protected Eccles. The sirens went active just seconds before he ran the sign, giving Eccles less time to react.

“I saw maybe a black vehicle approaching off the side, but you’re not going to think twice about it,” he told Global News.

The impact of the crash was serious enough to deploy the airbag and spin Eccles 180 degrees. He ended up crashing into a boulder on the side of the road, further damaging his BRZ.

His friend saw the whole thing from behind

His friend, Michael Sagadore, was following behind Eccles’ Subaru. He saw the accident unfold and noted the small window of time Eccles had to react.

“(The car) came barreling through the stop sign,” he said. “Jesse had zero time to react. There was probably half a second between the actual lights, sirens, and impact.”

The officer who hit him confirmed he was responding to a call when the accident happened. In true Canadian fashion, the officer apologized and took full responsibility for the crash.

He’s hoping his car won’t be rendered totaled, and that the police department will pay for repairs. Especially since he put a lot of money into modifying it.

“The officer did take accountability so I’m just hoping that, with money these days, if I’ve dumped money into something, especially in a case like this, it’s definitely going to suck to lose there,” said Eccles. “I shouldn’t have to walk away getting penalized by getting smoked like that.”

The accident is being investigated by the department. After he calmed down, he noticed his back felt stiff, his neck hurt, and his ears were ringing. He was treated at the hospital for minor injuries.

Viewers hope the Subaru owner sees justice

Viewers of Global News’ YouTube short were fully on Eccles’ side. However, they were nervous about the fact that the person who hit him was a police officer. Most were skeptical about the department covering repair costs.

“The only reason they are ‘investigating’ was because this was caught on camera, and you can see the stop sign the officer ran,” a viewer wrote.

Another noted the delay in the officer’s choice to use the sirens.

“The siren being activated 0.5 seconds before reaching the intersection is not enough time to react,” they wrote.

Someone else said the officer’s admission of responsibility doesn’t mean he’s out of the woods. However, Eccles should be grateful to be alive.

“Full responsibility does not imply govt coverage of repairs,” they wrote. “If it happened just a half second sooner, that Subaru driver might not have lived to talk about it.”