The Pas Traffic Services begins patrolling northern roadways

WINNIPEG — The RCMP has launched a traffic services unit for The Pas, Man., and surrounding areas.

The Pas Traffic Services is made up of four RCMP officers, three constables and one corporal who are dedicated to traffic and criminal interception in The Pas and the surrounding communities.

The unit police anything accessible by road in northern Manitoba, focusing on enforcement, education and impaired driving prevention, seatbelts, speeding and intersection safety.

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About 13 people are killed each year in traffic-related collisions in the area and 45 per cent of those collisions involve an impaired driver, RCMP said. In roughly half of these northern road fatalities, the deceased was not wearing a seatbelt.

The Pas detachment area sees 27 per cent of the northern traffic fatalities. More than half of those deaths occur on Highway 10.

“We are excited to have a dedicated traffic services unit in that area to service all the northern communities accessible by road so that we can do our part to help everyone get home safely,” Insp. Joanne Keeping, officer in charge of traffic services for the RCMP in Manitoba, said in a news release.

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The Pas Traffic Services will also work to prevent drugs from getting into northern Manitoba communities.

“Manitoba roadways are not an easy way to get drugs to the northern parts of the province,” said Keeping. “Traffic services and northern RCMP detachments work collectively to conduct traffic stops and checking vehicles on northern roadways in an effort to stop the flow of these substances into communities.”

The Pas Traffic Services officers have been on the road since April 1.