ATHABASCA – Two area drivers are extremely lucky to be able to see another day after two separate motor vehicle accidents could easily have claimed their lives.
Included in the stats from the Athabasca RCMP Detachment between Jan. 12 – Feb. 10, were 263 calls for service. It was an especially busy month on area highways for police who were called to two different fatal collisions near the Perryvale corner on Highway 2 south of Athabasca in that time and nearly had two more — one on Highway 2 (that ended up on Highway 55) Feb. 3 and another on Highway 827 Feb. 4.
On the morning of Feb. 3, a Honda Civic travelling east on Highway 2 west of Athabasca collided with the rear end of a fully loaded logging truck.
“The driver of the logging truck didn't even notice and pulled them all the way to the John Deere before getting stopped,” said Const. Jay Tessier Feb. 10.
The Deerland Equipment John Deere dealership, east of Athabasca, is visible from Highway 55, and that is where the logging truck finally came to a stop after being flagged down by a town employee. The logging truck, with the Honda in tow, travelled nearly 10 km, through downtown Athabasca, up the east hill and was just leaving town before he was stopped.
The man in the car walked away and was taken to hospital with minor injuries — an unlikely feat considering photos on social media showing the demolished vehicle with a large tree through the front windshield and through the back window on the side of the road.
The next morning, on Feb. 4, icy roads got the better of a woman travelling on Highway 827 and she hit the ditch and had to be pulled out by a tow truck. After the car was successfully removed from the ditch, the woman moved around to the passenger side and another car collided with hers, which hit her and threw her about a dozen feet into the ditch.
The woman was driven to hospital in Edmonton and was known to be there several days later, but her status is unknown. Drivers were redirected to Township Road 660 for several hours as police investigated. No charges have been laid.
Those were just two of the close calls drivers faced on local roads since Jan. 12.
As reported earlier, both Highway 55 and Highway 827 were closed the afternoon of Jan. 20 after a car failed to stop at the intersection and collided with a semi-truck. Two other vehicles then collided with the debris.
Police were also called to two different rollovers, one east of Athabasca and another near Calling Lake, as well as a head-on collision between two Dodge pick-ups that saw one of the drivers go to hospital with just minor injuries.
RCMP were not immune from the havoc on the roads either as a police vehicle was involved in a moose strike north of Athabasca Feb. 4.
In addition to the series of rather serious MVCs, police also dealt with the usual calls, responding to one assault with a weapon and one simple assault; 12 break and enter complaints; nine mischief calls; and six frauds.
Two of those frauds involved cryptocurrency scams.
“I think the more that it gets popular, the more it's going to happen. As more and more people go towards cryptocurrencies, the more crime is going to increase with it because it’s going to be more valuable,” said Tessier.
RCMP members also investigated two thefts over $5,000. In one case, a trailer worth about $15,000 was stolen, in the other, a local man lost nearly $7,000 after calling a fraudulent number to fix his Prime TV account.
There were also four thefts under $5,000 along with two shoplifting calls, and 22 calls regarding suspicious people or vehicles.
