EDMONTON – A 30-year-old Edmonton man charged with excessive speeding in October now faces criminal charges for endangering the two children who were in the vehicle at the time.
Cst. Dean Shwaga says police clocked the vehicle he was driving at 163 kilometres an hour, as it raced past them on the Anthony Henday – a 100 km/hr zone – the evening of Saturday, Oct. 26.
After “making erratic maneuvers” across three lanes of traffic, police say the Hyundai took the 87 Avenue exit and stopped at a red light next to a GMC truck.
Both vehicles began revving their engines, and as the light turned green they reportedly took off at a high speed.
Police pulled both vehicles over right away.
The driver of the GMC, a 32-year-old, was charged with speeding and stunting.
When it came to the Hyundai, officers were surprised by who they found inside apart from the 30-year-old driver and 28-year-old woman in the passenger seat.
“There were two children in the back, aged eight and nine,” said Schwaga, adding that it’s something he hasn’t seen often in such situations. “It was a shock.”
“We have seen the carnage that is involved in vehicles with high speeds…To have children in a vehicle that could be subjected to a crash is definitely disconcerting.”
The 30-year-old driver was charged with: speeding 50 km/h over the limit, careless driving, stunting, having an obscured licence plate, and operating a motor vehicle with window tinting.
After consulting with the Crown, those charges were upgraded this week to include: dangerous operation of a motor vehicle under the Criminal Code, and two counts of causing a child to be in need of intervention.
Police say they hand out about 33 tickets a month to motorists going more than 50 km/hr over the speed limit. This incident was one of 52 excessive speeding cases in October.
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