SUNDRE – Local Mounties are looking into a couple of no-injury hit and runs that happened within the span of about a couple of hours at two separate parking lots in town.
The files are among a total of 42 calls for service the Sundre RCMP detachment received during the period between Monday, Feb. 12 to Sunday, Feb. 18.
The first hit and run was reported at 11:53 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at the Sundre & District Aquaplex parking lot, with the second report later being received at 1:17 p.m. following an incident at the Pharmasave parking lot, reported Sgt. Trent Sperlie, the department’s commander.
Asked about the nature of the incidents that led to the vehicles being struck, Sperlie said, “They were both parked and vacant; nobody was in them.”
Both of the owners called the hit-and-runs into police upon returning to their vehicles and discovering the damage, the sergeant said, adding when asked that an estimate on the damage caused wasn’t immediately available.
Video surveillance footage from either location or nearby businesses and buildings had not yet been obtained when Sperlie spoke with the Albertan on Feb. 22, but he said both files remained under investigation.
That same day, police also received a report of uttering threats at about 2 p.m., although the subsequent investigation determined available evidence did not support laying any charges, he said.
Responding to a question about what kind of evidence would warrant laying charges, such as whether a complainant would perhaps require audio or video recording of any alleged threats, the sergeant said, “They did have a record of what was said and it did not meet the threshold of a criminal charge.”
In this case, “there was text messages sent,” he said.
“Somebody felt that what was uttered to them either verbally or through social media or through text messaging, they felt that that was a threatening statement or threatening conversation,” he said.
“And when we looked at it, it wasn’t. There was no rationale that it crossed the threshold for a criminal charge.”
Many of the remaining files logged by the Sundre RCMP throughout the week-long period pertained to traffic matters, with three speeding tickets as well as two warnings being issued.
Additionally, police reportedly responded to four no-injury collisions.
One incident involved a deer on Highway 22 and Range Road 340, and one in which a motorist struck a moose resulting in the vehicle being towed. Another was the result of a vehicle that slid on ice and struck the back of another vehicle in Sundre.
A motorist was also cited for failure to stop at the intersection of Highway 27 and Highway 584 after colliding into an eastbound vehicle that had the right-of-way as the driver was travelling into Sundre from west of town.
Both vehicles were towed as a result of that T-bone collision, but as speeds were not excessive there were no serious injuries reported.
The intersection on Sundre’s west side at the junction of highways 22-27-584 where the Cowboy Trail heads north toward Caroline, is the scene of fairly regular similar collisions.
Among Alberta Transportation’s plans to upgrade the Highway 27 high-load corridor through town is to replace the existing north- and south-bound stop signs with a regular-sized roundabout. The project had originally been scheduled for completion in 2023 but was postponed and is now anticipated to be done this year.
Although roundabouts do not eliminate the possibility of collisions, the traffic control measures by design substantially reduce the overall statistical likelihood of more serious head-on and T-bone collisions.
Residents with any information about these or other incidents are encouraged to contact the Sundre RCMP’s complaint line at 403-638-3655.
Alternatively, information may also be provided anonymously by contacting Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), online at www.P3Tips.com or by using the P3 Tips app available through the Apple App or Google Play Store.
