RCMP vehicle struck in Highway 59 incident

A man drove into a police vehicle when officers tried to speak with him on a shoulder of Highway 59 on Monday morning, RCMP say.

A passing motorist called police after picking up a visibly upset woman near Richardson Road in the Rural Municipality of Ritchot at 7:45 a.m. The woman — a 27-year-old Winnipeg resident — said she had been a passenger in a vehicle parked nearby and that the driver was intoxicated and had a machete.

Officers saw the vehicle parked off the southbound lanes of Highway 59, near Provincial Road 210.

The man was looking at his phone when officers approached him and, after noticing them, struck the police vehicle while trying to drive away, Manitoba RCMP said in a news release Tuesday.

A 31-year-old Steinbach man is facing charges of driving over the legal limit, flight from police, resisting arrest and mischief. He was released from custody and given a court date. His driver’s licence was suspended, and his vehicle was impounded.