RCMP Watch

Lloydminster Meridian Booster - John B. Spigott - June 23, 2006

Highway deaths are up in Saskatchewan almost 70 per cent from last year, and the Lloydminster Rural RCMP say the Midwest is fortunate numbers aren’t higher than they are.

“For this period of time last year we had four and this year we’ve only had one,” said Sgt. Heinz Hauser of the Lloydminster Rural RCMP. “There was a whole bunch of potential earlier when we had those snowstorms resulting in all those accidents. We came out of there smelling like a rose – we had our fingers crossed and we were really happy when we got out of that stretch of weather.”

Hauser said to come out of a period with a great deal of accidents due to poor road conditions with no fatalities makes the only incident this year that much tougher to take.

“Then you get one like the accident we had on Highway 3, where it’s possible the lady fell asleep – those are the ones where you say ‘oh, man’ and those are the ones that are preventable,” said Hauser.

On May 27, rural RCMP were called to a single-vehicle rollover on Highway 3 about 16 kilometres west of Paradise

Hill. RCMP said at the time the vehicle was heading eastbound when it left the highway and rolled, ejecting the occupants. An 18-year-old Leoville woman was pronounced dead on the scene. Neither of the occupants were wearing seatbelts. In the first five months of 2006, 44 people have died in road accidents in Saskatchewan.

Hauser said while there are any number of reasons why fatal accidents in the province have risen drastically so far in 2006, one issue seems to continually be a problem.

“A good part of them could be under the influence of alcohol and drugs,” said Hauser. “That seems to be the major one in some areas. People are always upset when we pull them over since they know they’re getting a ticket, but they should really be thankful we’re preventing them from something they could be paying for the rest of their lives. That’s not the only cause, but a lot of these are definitely preventable.”