About a month ago, Sergeant Darcy Thiessen with Pembina Valley RCMP called out, what he referred to as, two 'unacceptable' speeding incidents that happened in a single day. Now, he's doing it again following a dangerous situation one of his officers encountered over the weekend.
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Around 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning, officers on patrol noticed a vehicle travelling at a high rate of speed on Highway 3 near Carman. Radar confirmed the vehicle’s speed at 208 km/h in a 100 km/h zone.
'Driving under the influence at that speed is just a ticking time bomb.'
According to Sgt. Thiessen, the vehicle entered Carman before the officer was able to pull it over but was quickly found parked in town. Then, a woman came over to ask the officer what the issue was, followed by a man who, according to Sgt. Thiessen, showed signs of impairment.
"He was asking the same thing - what was going on? The officer asked the male is name, but he wouldn't provide it. After a short discussion, the male admitted to having been driving the vehicle and that he owned it."
The 21-year-old from the Municipality of Rhineland was arrested for impaired driving and later provided breath samples that confirmed he was over the legal limit.
Not only was the vehicle towed and impounded, but the driver is facing criminal code charges of impaired driving and driving over .08. as well as three Highway Traffic Act charges, a serious offence notice which Sgt. Thiessen says will draw the attention of MPI.
"Like I explained last time, they will be having a conversation with him at a later date. Plus, whatever he gets for the impaired driving penalty, MPI can also tack on further suspensions as they deem fit," he explained.
A recipe for disaster
Thankfully, Sgt. Thiessen says the officer witnessed the incident, located the vehicle and prevented anything from happening that day.
"Driving under the influence at that speed is just a ticking time bomb. Thankfully no one got hurt," he noted. "Your judgement is skewed with being that impaired and things happen really, really quick. Once again, this is just unacceptable behaviour. It puts everyone at risk. The last thing we want is to tell your family that someone got hurt."
Overall, Sgt. Thiessen says the summer months haven't been too bad for high-speed incidents.
"But if this practice continues it's only a matter of time," he added.