SUNDRE — Although not necessarily kept running off their feet from one call to another, local emergency services were nevertheless reasonably busy over the Thanksgiving long weekend.
While there were a couple of collisions as well as grass fires during the four-day period between Friday, Oct. 7 and Monday, Oct. 10, no fatalities or serious property damage was reported.
The Sundre Fire Department received seven calls, including motor vehicle collisions, EMS responses as well as bush fires that involved a mutual aid to assist Cremona, said Chief Ross Clews, adding the Thanksgiving weekend does not tend to be as busy as camping season long weekend.
“It’s usually quiet,” said Clews.
Meanwhile, Mounties at the Sundre RCMP detachment fielded a total of 16 calls, said Sgt. Trent Sperlie, the department’s commander.
Loose livestock results in collision
Among them were two collisions, including a “fairly significant” single-vehicle incident on Oct. 7 west of Sundre where Coal Camp Road transitions to gravel from pavement, the sergeant said.
The driver of a pickup truck escaped serious injury after striking and killing a cow that had strayed onto the road, he said.
Having grown up on a farm in southwest Saskatchewan, the sergeant said he’s no stranger to wrangling cattle – both in his past life on the farm and while donning a uniform as a police officer.
“I’ve had brand new calves in the front seat of my truck,” he said, with a chuckle.
Owners can “100 per cent” be held responsible and charged for livestock that was not properly enclosed, he said.
“But we’d want to look at it closely,” he added. “Was there any deliberate act by the person – or omission that the person didn’t do – to keep the animals in, causing them out?”
Livestock can sometimes have a knack for testing fence lines and figuring out spots where they can just push their way out, he said, adding there can also be natural circumstances that bring down fencing and that it’s not always the owner’s fault.
“Did the person take reasonable measures to make sure that his livestock was contained?” he said. “And if the answer is yes, then no – we don’t charge.”
In the event there are multiple instances where livestock repeatedly escapes a specific property resulting in a collision on the road or damage to neighbouring properties, police would take a closer look, he said.
Of course in rural areas where wildlife is also prevalent, motorists must also always remain vigilant, he added.
Number of mischiefs
A mischief complaint was also filed on Oct. 7 when a caller reported they had found their vehicle in an underground parking at the apartment building on 203 Centre Street had sustained damage to the trunk’s lid sometime overnight, he said.
And at about 11:15 p.m. on Oct. 8, there was another instance of mischief when an altercation at a local establishment led to one intoxicated male being kicked out. But the individual later returned to smash out a window before fleeing the scene, he said, adding the suspect – described as wearing a ball cap and a Blue Jays sweater – had not yet been identified or found.
In further cases of mischief elsewhere in the area, a directional sign for Schott’s Lake was at 9 a.m. on Oct. 8 reported to have been cut down some time overnight, he said.
Injured boater airlifted
On Oct. 8 at about 5:30 p.m., a boater who was coming down the Red Deer River through town activated their SOS beacon after colliding into a log and subsequently suffering a blow to the head, said Sperlie.
“Another boater picked him up and brought him to shore,” he said, adding EMS members were the primary responders at the scene and that the male patient was air lifted by STARS to a Calgary hospital.
The sergeant could not say for certain whether impairment was a factor nor the extent of the injuries sustained, but added there must have been concerns for an air ambulance to be dispatched.
Passerby takes unattended rifle as precaution
A complainant who had called to report his hunting rifle, equipment and backpack had been stolen, decided against pressing charges against an individual police later found in possession of the property, said Sperlie.
The hunter had reportedly left the gear unattended for about half an hour for reasons not known, and another person who stumbled upon the equipment picked everything up including the gun, he said.
Members attended the scene and managed to find the person who’d taken the equipment, he said.
“(Officers) couldn’t determine if it was actually stolen or if the person was genuinely concerned about it (the rifle) left out in the bush,” he said, adding the complainant did not want to pursue charges.
Gun owners who leave a weapon unattended leading to the firearm being stolen and used in the commission of crime could potentially risk being charged for negligence, he said.
“Unsafe storage comes to mind, certainly. But that would all depend on the type of gun and how it was left,” said Sperlie. “I don’t have enough information to say whether it was unsafe storage (in this case).”
Each situation has to be assessed case-by-case, he added.
“We look at the circumstances surrounding each case independently,” he said. “If something is grossly unsafe or something is grossly being transported improperly, charges could be laid. But the bottom line is, we’re not looking to charge the victim of having their gun stolen.”
Charges likely wouldn't even be considered so long as measures are reasonably taken to safely store and transport the weapon, he said.
“We’re not in the business of charging victims of theft.”
Traffic enforcement
While there was a Canada-wide campaign called Operation Impact 2022, which is organized by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to encourage safe driving behaviours, with RCMP across Alberta issuing a total of 2,653 traffic tickets, the local detachment was unable to conduct any Check Stops.
“We had the detachment come down with a nasty flu, so we were short bodies over the weekend,” said Sperlie, adding the members were well on the mend.
According to a press release issued by the Alberta RCMP, there were no fatalities reported as a result of crashes across the provincial RCMP’s jurisdiction.
However, there were 21 motor vehicle collisions that resulted in injury, police said.
Officers conducted patrols along provincial roads and highways, along the way writing up citations for traffic violations including 1,328 speeding charges, 18 excessive speeding charges of more than 50 km/h over the posted limit, 58 tickets for failure to wear a seatbelt as well as 65 distracted driving charges, while 88 impaired drivers were taken off the roads. Out of 40 calls RCMP departments throughout the province received from people reporting dangerous or potentially impaired motorists, 11 of them resulted in Mounties successfully tracking down the suspect vehicles and confirmed the drivers were intoxicated.
Sperlie said his detachment’s members issued a number of traffic warnings primarily for speeding and manner of driving.
