A Manitoba RCMP Officer is speaking out after an experience while on duty Saturday night, that he said could have ended his life.
Sgt. Mark Hume said he was conducting a traffic stop on the side of Highway 1, just one kilometre east of Carberry, Man., at around 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17, when a car zoomed by and nearly clipped him.
“I could have been pinned, I could have been killed. People in the other vehicle could have been hurt,” Hume said.
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The officer said one SUV travelling on the highway slowed down and moved over as it was supposed to, but another vehicle tried to speed past the slowed SUV.
“Car came behind him, moved over, braked so hard she lost control and swerved. Then lost control again and side-swiped them.”
The force of the impact pushed the slowed-down SUV off the road. It had a family of five people inside, including a 72-year-old grandmother and two children.
Hume said the ‘offending’ vehicle had a 28-year-old Brandon woman driving and she was pregnant. She was taken to hospital as a precaution because the airbags went off. There was also passenger inside her vehicle.
The woman was fined $672 for careless driving.
“I think its common courtesy, whether law or not, why wouldn’t you slow down? Why wouldn’t you still slow down and pull over?”
The Slow Down Move Over law is laid out in section 109 of the Manitoba Traffic Act.