Two fatal collisions took place on Alberta highways last weekend and the Bow Valley was lucky to avoid a similar situation.
Throughout the province Integrated Traffic Services RCMP members and sheriffs laid 5,703 charges, the majority of which were speeding charges. Among them were 11 impaired driving charges and 13 driving suspensions.
The two fatal collisions occurred near Westlock and Vulcan.
Locally, two near misses occurred in this region.
On Friday (May 16), the male driver of a Chevy SSR was clocked at 155 km/h near Lake Louise. He was charged with speeding and careless driving and was suspended for 24 hours because of recent drug consumption. His vehicle was impounded for 24 hours.
On Saturday (May 17), after getting his vehicle back, he then proceeded to Field, where he rolled it and speed is believed to be a contributing factor.
On Monday (May 18), a driver in a Honda Pilot who was slowing on the highway for a Parks Canada vehicle with its emergency lights on was struck by a Volkswagen Jetta driven by a Manitoba man near Castle Junction.
At the time, Parks staff were trying to herd an elk off the highway.
According to RCMP, the Manitoban was not paying proper attention and ran into the rear of the Pilot. He was charged with careless driving and fined $402; his vehicle was a writeoff. There were no injuries.
Over the weekend, said RCMP Cpl. Chris Blandford, Bow Valley Integrated Traffic Services Unit team leader, with the aid of valley RCMP detachment members, 616 speeding charges were laid. Among them were two drivers doing 155, 15 more who were 50 km/h over the posted 90 km/h speed limit and five who were 60 km/h over.
“It was a first for me to catch a guy speeding and a day later finding out he rolled onto his roof,” he said. “And the incident near Castle Junction showed how people need to watch our for wildlife on the roads. The person in the Pilot slowed down as they’re supposed to, but the Manitoba driver just wasn’t paying attention.”
According to Blandford, the 616 charges was down from a 2013 total of 638 on the May long weekend, “but I think that was mostly due to rain on Saturday and Sunday.”
The speeding numbers were provided by the Integrated Traffic Services patrolling Alberta highways and do not account for all other general duty enforcement in all other RCMP Alberta detachments.
