SUNDRE – Police were out patrolling and conducting check stops over the holiday period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, and while a number of traffic citations were issued, the local RCMP detachment’s commander reported that no impaired driving charges were laid.
From Dec. 24 to Jan. 1, the Sundre RCMP department received a total of 47 calls, said Sgt. Trent Sperlie.
“We definitely had check stops going,” Sperlie told the Albertan in response to follow-up questions about the holiday period.
The sergeant said members were carrying out “roving traffic checkstops” throughout the Christmas season, ultimately resulting in 22 provincial traffic charges for violations such as speeding or running stop signs.
“They would pick an area and just do traffic enforcement there for a while, then they’d go and pick another area and do traffic enforcement there,” he said.
Although Mounties did not bust any motorists who got behind the wheel under the influence, Sperlie said the RCMP received three impaired driver complaints from members of the public who had reported witnessing vehicles being operated erratically.
In one of those instances, members located the driver who turned out not to be intoxicated, while in the other two cases – in which one search effort involved officers from Rocky Mountain House – police were unable to locate the drivers, he said.
And while the Sundre RCMP reported five instances of assault, the complainant in three of them did not seek to press charges, he said.
“It’s not uncommon though that we’ll get assaults where the victim doesn’t want to pursue charges,” he said.
Two of the reported assaults were alcohol related and happened at a local drinking establishment; one occurred on the early morning hours of Dec. 24 with the other unfolding on Dec. 29 at the same location but in an unrelated situation, he said.
“That’s probably not uncommon to a regular weekend at any of the licensed places,” he said.
No charges had officially been laid as of the time the sergeant spoke with the Albertan, but Sperlie added that one of the instances remained under investigation.
While police received a call of a helicopter crash that reportedly happened on Dec. 26 west of Sundre in the Cutoff Creek area, the sergeant said no information in his files indicated anyone had been seriously hurt and that Mounties were not deployed to that scene.
“It was described as a hard landing with significant damage,” he said, adding the incident was reported to federal authorities.
Follow-up questions emailed to the Transportation Safety Board – the lead federal agency responsible for investigating aviation incidents for cause and contributing factors – were not immediately answered.
The sergeant also reported that there had on Dec. 28 been a fuel theft from a remote property along Forestry Trunk Road where heavy construction equipment was parked.
“There was apparently work equipment down along the Forestry Trunk Road; it was a truck that pulled up (alongside) and they were siphoning fuel out of one of the pieces of equipment,” he said.
As it turned out, the pickup truck – a Ford F-150 – that was used in carrying out the offence also turned out to have been stolen. By the time responding members arrived at the scene, they found the stolen pickup truck abandoned but the occupant or occupants were already gone, he said.
“That means that there could have been a second vehicle, which isn’t uncommon,” he said. “I don’t think they’d hike out of there.”
Additionally, there were also two reports to police of missing people who later turned out to have simply been in another community, serving as a reminder to keep loved ones informed about travel plans and return times.
And the only motor vehicle collision reported in the Sundre detachment’s coverage area over the one-week span was on Dec. 27 in the James River area when a vehicle left the road after failing to negotiate an icy turn and crashed through a fence post. There were no injuries and only damage to property as a result of the crash.
The holidays were even quieter over at the Sundre Fire Department, where members responded to seven calls between Dec. 24 and Jan. 1, reported Chief Ross Clews.
During a brief phone conversation with the Albertan on Wednesday, Jan. 3, Clews said his department responded to four medical runs, one alarm, one outside fire, as well as one smoke investigation that turned out to be a controlled burn.
“It was nice and quiet, relatively speaking,” he said. “Everybody was playing safe over the season, so it was nice…we had a good holiday break.”
