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Car crash results in bomb scare

'What a way to start a Monday'

By: Alana Odegard and Gabrielle Giroday

Posted: 12/20/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies) | Last Modified: 12/21/2011 1:19 PM | Updates

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Winnipeg Police Bomb Unit robot detonates items after a suspicious package was seen in a vehicle involved in a two vehicle collision on Portage Avenue at Strathcona Street Monday morning that sent two to the hospital. Both east and west bound traffic were closed.

It started as a two-vehicle crash and ended with a bang amid a scene straight out of the Oscar winner, The Hurt Locker.

And it turns out the whole drama that tied up the morning rush-hour traffic on Portage Avenue may have been triggered by a Halloween costume found in what had been a speeding car.

Enlarge Image

A member of the Winnipeg police bomb unit (above)collects remains of a package after it was detonated Monday (left). The package, designed to resemble a pipe bomb, was a hoax. (PHOTOS BY WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

The unusual police call began just before 7 a.m. Monday when emergency officials responded to a collision near Portage Avenue and Strathcona Street between a Mitsubishi car and a GMC Jimmy sport utility vehicle.

Police said officers saw a suspicious package in the Mitsubishi and called in the bomb unit. The specialized unit used a robot to detonate the package around 10 a.m.

"It's not something that you would typically see when you're attending to a motor-vehicle collision, just in plain sight, on a passenger seat," said Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Natalie Aitken.

Aitken said the package was "designed" to resemble a pipe bomb and "looked very realistic."

"As that investigation went on with members of the bomb unit and the robot was used to neutralize that device, it was determined to be a hoax device," said Aitken.

She said the bomb unit, whose officers are the civic version of the elite military team popularized in the movie The Hurt Locker, responds to a handful of calls each year.

"What a way to start a Monday," said Kellie Creighton, who works at MIG Insurance at 1401 Portage Ave., close to the intersection where the crash occurred.

Some employees saw the police robot in action.

"I heard a giant pop and then saw smoke," said Ashley Platschick, an employee at MIG Insurance.

"It actually happened twice. They put it (the device) in a sandbag and then blew it up once and then again 10 minutes later... Apparently it (the device) was from a Halloween costume, that's what the police said the guy in the car told them."

Before the crash, the Mitsubishi was speeding westbound on Portage Avenue when it crashed into the SUV, police said. Both the 47-year-old driver of the SUV and the 39-year-old driver of the Mitsubishi were transported to hospital in stable condition.

Police had not announced any criminal charges against the driver of the Mitsubishi Monday related to the bomb scare, but said he was ticketed for driving imprudently.

Officers were continuing to investigate what happened.

"We're certainly going to speak with this individual to get an idea of why that device, whether it was real or not, was in the area it was, and how that came to be," said Aitken.

alana.odegard@freepress.mb.ca gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 20, 2011 B1

History

Updated on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 1:19 PM CST: Removes reference to charges against SUV driver. The sentence should have read Mitsubishi driver.

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