January 16, 2013
WEDNESDAY
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A 33-year-old Medicine Hat native who was working in Estevan, was killed Jan. 8 in a head-on collision with a semi four kilometres north of Estevan. (RCMP Photo)
One dead in head on collision
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Icy roads a major factor The string of highway accidents that has plagued the Estevan area this winter has claimed another life. A 33-year-old Medicine Hat native was killed Jan. 8 when he lost control of his pick-up truck and collided head-on with a semi. According to information from the RCMP, the accident occurred roughly four kilometres north of Estevan on Highway 47.
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The driver of the truck, who was working in the area, was declared dead at the scene. The semi driver sustained minor injuries in the collision and was treated by EMTs at the scene and released. Traffic was rerouted around the scene for a number of hours while an RCMP traffic reconstructionist conducted an investigation. Road conditions in the area were poor
at the time of the accident as blowing snow created extremely icy conditions in the area. Although the investigation is continuing, the RCMP do not expect any charges will be laid. The name of the deceased has not been released. Last week’s collision was just the latest in a series of accidents on local highways this winter. On Dec. 23, a 45-yearold Alberta man, who was
living and working in the Redvers area, was killed when the vehicle he was driving collided with a semi east of Hirsch. Similar to last week’s accident, road conditions were a major factor in the collision. On Dec. 21, a family of five was injured when they were involved in another head-on collision east of the city. The two occupants of the other vehicle suffered minor injuries.
RCMP believe that alcohol was a factor in the accident and charges have been laid against the 16-year-old driver of the car that struck the SUV carrying the family. Along with the accidents on the local highways, a number of collisions within city limits have been reported. Fortunately there have been no major injuries or fatalities in those incidents.
Drunk driving on the rise in Estevan It remains clear that Estevan drivers are not getting the message about the dangers of drinking and driving. That fact was highlighted by the recent release of the Estevan Police Service crime statistics for 2012. The report noted the number of DUI arrests in the city took an alarming jump in 2012, rising to 194 from 154 in 2011. Although there were a handful of increases in various categories, Chief Del Block said the spike in drunk driving arrests has him particularly concerned. “It continues to be a thought process in this city and I don’t know what drives that,� Block said in an interview with The Mercury on Friday. “It’s a small city and in most cases you can walk anywhere you want or a short
taxi ride will get you there. But people take that chance and I don’t know why they are doing it.� Block said groups such as SGI and Mothers Against Drunk Driving have gone to great pains to get the message about driving while impaired to the public, but it remains obvious that a large segment of residents are not getting the point. “You try and (get the message out) through education and we have increased our enforcement component. We get funding from SGI through the Overdrive project to target impaired driving and that is what has driven some of our stats up as well, but clearly the offences are there or we wouldn’t be picking them up.� Block added that Este-
Chief Del Block van is well ahead of other Saskatchewan communities of a similar size as well as larger centres. Estevan had well over double the number of DUI arrests as Weyburn and more than Moose Jaw which almost triples the Energy City in population. Overall, the EPS had a marked increase in activity in 2012. Their total number of calls rose from 7,406 in 2011 to 8,248.
“Part of the increase in stats will directly correlate to the resources we have because we are staffed now and we can be out there doing our job more. Criminal offences — those things are happening and we are getting called to them. There is a significant increase in those, that isn’t just because of more police presence.� Among the areas seeing large increases was traffic offences which rose to 2,326 from 1,753. Block attributed the increase to the addition of a traffic unit for just over two months in 2012. “The goal is to have full-time traffic again in 2013 with as many as three officers in there part of the time,� he said. “I am probably not going to be able to keep them in there for the whole year, but
when I can have them there, they are going to be there. “There is no doubt that it helped.â€? Also increasing were provincial statutes — which are non-traffic offences such as liquor tickets — rose to 1,164 from 913. Other criminal code offences climbed to 437 from 238. Sexual offences rose to 21 from nine. Another sharp rise came in the number of prisoners the EPS housed overnight. In 2012 the EPS had 892 prisoners which was up from 693. To put it in further context, in 2005 the EPS had just 370 prisoners. Block said the increase comes at a significant cost for the department, estimating that it costs almost $100,000 to house that volume of prisoners in a given year. Huge ⇢ A2
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