Fatalities on roads could hit new high

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This article was published 14/07/2023 (830 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Intoxication, speeding and distracted driving are contributing to the number of fatal accidents on Manitoba roadways — on track to meet or exceed a 17-year high.

“These are catastrophic incidents for everybody involved. There is obviously death and destruction. It does have a big impact on first responders who are repeatedly going to these things and on the individual citizens who just come upon them,” said traffic division RCMP Sgt. Mark Hume.

“If you’re driving down the road, minding your own business, and you come upon a crash with multiple injured, it’s traumatic. That’s a horrible burden to put on an innocent citizen.”

Data from Manitoba Public Insurance show 68 people have died this year in collisions, as of July 10, including motorists killed near New Bothwell, Cowan and Neepawa in the past week.

The numbers are inflated by the deaths of 16 seniors in a Trans-Canada Highway collision between a semi-trailer truck and minibus last month. However, even without those, the province is more than halfway to meeting last year’s total of 103 fatalities.

The last time Manitoba recorded more death on its roadways was 2006, when 104 people were killed.

While the 2023 number is high, the rate of fatalities per 10,000 motorists has dipped slightly in recent years, suggesting — although there may be more drivers on the road — vehicle safety standards and medical interventions may be saving more lives.

According to MPI’s 2021 traffic collision report, the latest available, distracted driving was considered a factor in more than half the fatal collisions that year.

Officers patrolling the province’s highways are also increasingly seeing intoxicated motorists driving at high rates of speed, Hume said Thursday.

Earlier this week, one officer charged three separate impaired drivers who were each driving in excess of 50 kilometres over the speed limit, Hume said, echoing similar reports throughout the province.

“We’re talking middle of the afternoon, middle of the morning. All three were impaired while driving those speeds on busy highways,” he said. “I don’t think people are consciously thinking they are going to go out and take somebody’s life, but its just that attitude of, ‘It’s not going to happen to me.’”

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Hume urged motorists to report suspicious or dangerous driving behaviour to police or emergency services.

In Manitoba, the registered owner of a vehicle can be charged with traffic offences even if police do not catch a driver in the act. The law does not extend to criminal charges.

Crucial details to provide to investigators include the make, model and colour of the vehicle, along with its licence plate number, Hume said.

“Report it to police, whether its someone swerving all over the road, speeding or possibly on their cellphones,” he said. “Call immediately. Don’t wait until you get home.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.