TISDALE — A local man was charged and found guilty of dangerous driving after an incident south of Tisdale.
“We had a police truck with lights activated on Highway 35, blocking the highway, allowing a tow truck to pull a vehicle that had entered the ditch,” said Cpl. Mike Benjamin of the Tisdale detachment of the RCMP. “The tow truck had its emergency lights on.”
This was about 10 kilometres south of Tisdale at approximately eight in the morning.
“We had a southbound vehicle on 35 come up behind us, fail to slow down, pass us on the right – so through the ditch at 100 kilometres per hour – and then go back on the highway and keep going.”
Driving visibility and road conditions were good at the time.
“It was dark, which should have made the emergency lights even clearer,” Benjamin said. “Visibility was excellent, like five kilometres in either direction – no problem.”
He said this situation was due to the driver trying to pass and getting confused.
“In this case the driver was confused, went to pass, realized both lanes of traffic were blocked by emergency vehicles and then had to take emergency evasive action to avoid either colliding into the tow truck of police truck.”
“Luckily he didn’t get sucked in.”
According to Benjamin, this incident could have been avoided if the driver slowed down.
“Again the public is reminded, if you see emergency lights you need to slow down to 60 whether it’s a police truck, a tow truck, a snow plow, any emergency vehicle or construction personnel – you need to slow down to 60.”
He said part of the importance is the lights mean there are likely personnel on the side of the road.
“If it’s an emergency or there is emergency personnel on the side of the road working, slowing down to 60 allows the driver to access the situation and not put those emergency workers, or road crew workers or tow truck operators lives in danger. It’s as simple as that.”
The man attended court on Feb. 19 where he was given a fine.
From Feb. 8 to Feb. 20 the Tisdale detachment of the RCMP also dealt with two failures to remain at the scene of crashes.
“It’s unfortunately very common in Tisdale or in general. People come in and they notice damage to their vehicle or there are crashes and they don’t get to come in.”
The key message for a collision Benjamin wants people to know is if you’re in a collision, get the number of the plate of the vehicle and driver’s information.
“Failure to remain or failure to report is an offence,” Benjamin said. “If the police deem that the driver could have reported sooner or deemed the driver was taking evasive maneuver action to avoid reporting a collision we can charge them, definitely.”
