WINNIPEG — In a single day this weekend, three separate incidents on the highways of Manitoba caused the death of three people and injured 11 more.
RCMP report all incidents happened on Saturday, Sept. 17 between the hours of 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. CT.
Police are calling on drivers to fix their driving behaviour as “we are continuously seeing drivers put their lives and the lives of others at risk by driver impaired, speeding or simply not paying attention,” according to Inspector Ed Moreland, Officer in Charge of Traffic Services for Manitoba RCMP.
“This is a tragedy,” Moreland said.
The first incident happened in the outskirts of Winnipeg, just past noon, when RCMP responded to a four vehicle crash at the intersection of Pipeline Road and the Perimeter Highway. A nine-year-old girl and a 71-year-old woman were taken to hospital and remain in stable condition.
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The investigation showed that a vehicle travelling southbound on Pipeline Road did not stop at a red light and was hit by a mini-van that was going eastbound on the Perimeter. The investigation is ongoing.
Twenty minutes later, RCMP attended to a call on Provincial Road 340, 8 kilometres south of the town of Shilo.
Two men, aged 51 and 59, were pronounced dead at the scene. Police say the men were driving an ATV at a “high rate of speed” in a ditch next to P.R. 340 when they hit an embankment. The ATV flew through the air and when it landed, caused fatal injuries to both men, who were wearing helmets and seat belts.
In the third serious incident of the day, shortly before 10 p.m., Killarney RCMP responded to a truck rollover on Highway 23, 3 kilometres east of Ninette.
First responders found a 32-year-old man laying on the highway next to the pickup; he was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other men were found near the crash site and taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Police say alcohol was a factor in the crash.
“There is no possible excuse for this behaviour and unless all Manitobans commit to safe driving, this loss of life will continue to occur,” Moreland added.
RCMP issued an additional warning: “For those drivers on our roads that choose to put the lives of others in danger, the Manitoba RCMP will be doing everything it can to stop them and hold them accountable for their actions.
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