Sometimes a regular day for the RCMP officer, when working on traffic stop can change in a horrific disaster in just one second. Recently a driver was trying to avoid a crash into other vehicles on the highway in Manitoba but instead collided with police vehicles during an RCMP traffic stop.
On Wednesday, November 14th the Headingley RCMP pulled over two vehicles on Highway 1 near Elie. During a regular traffic stop work in the evening with the suspected impaired driver, another vehicle traveling a westbound crashed into the passenger side of a police cruiser. The cruiser then collided into a police SUV, that was parked next to it, due to the force of the initial collision.
The westbound vehicle rolled and came to a stop on its roof. Its 82-year-old driver was wearing a seatbelt and wasn’t hurt, but police had to quickly remove him from his vehicle and away from the crash scene due to smoke and danger of a possible fire.
“Here is a perfect example of the dangers we face on a daily basis when we conduct traffic stops and why we stress the importance of drivers needing to slow down and move over,” said RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre Thursday.
“Thankfully, these officers and the members of the public walked away uninjured. This could have been so much worse.”
The driver in the initial traffic stop, a 28-year-old Winnipeg man, was arrested for impaired driving and taken to the Headingley RCMP detachment.
Police still continue the investigation and working with all the witnesses, if you or anyone you know was driving by the crash scene at the time of the accident or shortly after and have a dash cam in the vehicle, that could help with the details of the incident, please contact your local police department.