Frustration, loss mount as Manitoba highway 2023 death toll climbs

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This article was published 02/10/2023 (750 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An RCMP traffic commander fears 2023 may mark one of the deadliest years in recent memory on Manitoba roads and highways.

“Right now, if the trend continues as it has for the first nine months of the year, we’re on course to be one of the worst years in the last couple of decades for the number of fatalities,” Sgt. Mark Hume, who leads the Manitoba RCMP’s north and west traffic services units out of the Minnedosa detachment, said Monday.

A weekend single-vehicle rollover near Swan River killed five people, bringing the total so far this year to 89 deaths in 61 separate collisions on Manitoba roadways that fall under RCMP jurisdiction.

In 2022, 60 people died in 57 collisions in Mounties’ jurisdiction.

Manitoba Public Insurance data show last year’s province-wide total was 103 fatalities, with the deadliest prior year on roadways marked in MPI data as 2006, when 104 people were killed.

RCMP data analysts were not able to confirm Monday the deadliest year in their jurisdiction in recent decades, as many had the day off to recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Sept. 30).

At 5 p.m. Saturday, Swan River RCMP and emergency personnel responded to the scene of a single-vehicle crash on Highway 83, about 20 kilometres south of Swan River, police said Sunday.

Officers discovered an SUV with five occupants was travelling northbound on the highway when it entered the ditch and rolled into a field.

Three men and two women were ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. None of the occupants were wearing a seatbelt and speed is believed to be a factor in the crash, RCMP said.

On Monday, Municipality of Swan Valley West Reeve Bill Gade said the community is grappling with how to understand what happened and to mourn those who died.

Gade said he stopped by the scene of the collision Sunday and again Monday, where he saw others do the same.

“I think, they’re trying to get straight in their head how such a thing could happen,” he said. “Is there anything we could have done different?”

Meantime, Mounties are at a loss to explain why the year thus far has been so deadly — though a June collision that killed 17 Dauphin-area seniors on a trip to a casino near Carberry, among other multiple fatalities in single collisions, played a role in the spike in deaths.

“It’s devastating to (front-line officers) as well, both from the perspective of dealing these collisions and sometimes feeling a little helpless that they’re not preventing more of them,” Hume said.

“It’s a frustration, it’s being at a loss — what could we do, could we do something different?”

However, Hume said, three main areas of concern play major roles in road deaths: impaired driving, speeding, and not using seatbelts.

“No. 1 is wear a seatbelt. Most collisions are highly survivable if you’re wearing a seatbelt. No. 2 is drinking and driving… that accounts for a huge portion of our fatalities,” he said.

“The thing we’re seeing a big change in in the past couple of years is the increase in speed.”

Hume said Mounties are now catching multiple “super speeders” — going more than 50 km/h over the limit — a week or even a single evening.

“In the last year, we’ve seen a trend toward super speeders that are also impaired, which is a dangerous, dangerous combination. That’s a big change this year.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca