Manitoba Mountie crashes ATV after night of drinking
A Manitoba RCMP officer who got into an accident driving an all-terrain vehicle at a high rate of speed after a night of drinking alcohol was docked five days of pay for his behaviour.
An RCMP discipline report into the Easterville case said the officer admitted he had been drinking and driving the ATV without a helmet.
The report said the constable was off duty one evening in July 2010 and began drinking alcohol at a residence, continuing until 4 a.m.
He then left the house on his personal ATV and went to another house where he continued drinking until 7 a.m., the report said.
We depend on these people to enforce these laws and keep us safe. What was he doing driving around?- Melody Bodnarchuk, MADD
The officer “then departed again on his personal ATV, driving at a high rate of speed and not wearing a helmet. [The officer] met a pedestrian and applied the front brakes of his ATV in an abrupt manner to avoid the pedestrian," the report stated.
“This caused the ATV to flip and [the officer] was thrown off the ATV, hitting his head on the ground upon landing and causing him to lose consciousness."
The officer was then taken to the local nursing station for treatment.
Docked pay
Following an RCMP adjudication board hearing in 2013, the constable was reprimanded and docked five days’ pay.
Internal RCMP discipline cases are not routinely made public, but the CBC News I-Team asked for and received recent Manitoba-based decisions.
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The constable was initially charged with impaired driving under the Criminal Code, but two years after the incident, as part of an agreement with the Crown, the officer pleaded guilty to a lesser offence under the Manitoba Highway Traffic Act — driving carelessly — and was fined $2,000.
“Very disappointed,” was the reaction of Melody Bodnarchuk, president of MADD Winnipeg (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), in an interview with CBC News.
She said police officers should be held to a higher standard than the general public.
“We depend on these people to enforce these laws and keep us safe. What was he doing driving around?" she said. “He almost hit somebody, a pedestrian."
Bodnarchuk became active in MADD after her 22-year-old nephew Brett Yasinsky was killed in a crash with an impaired driver in 2010.
Bodnarchuk said more strict enforcement and penalties for drinking and driving are needed.
“It is a very selfish thing to do, very selfish, because the scope of victimization is huge,” she said.
MADD Canada told CBC News the organization does not take a position on whether police officers should lose their jobs in cases involving alcohol and driving, but the spokesperson said employers should have a code of conduct to deal with the issue.
“We are pleased to see the RCMP has a process in place for instances such as this. It sends a message to its members that this type of behaviour is unacceptable,” the MADD spokesperson said.
The discipline report noted the constable “was lucky because he could have killed himself or the pedestrian.”
Although there was no conviction on the charge of impaired driving, the report said the adjudicators “could not ignore the role played by alcohol consumption."
'Sincere apology'
In the officer’s defence, two letters of support were on record including one authored by a supervisor and another by a peer.
The constable made a “sincere apology, stating he has made important changes in his life as a result of the incident,” the report said.
“He wanted especially to acknowledge the impact of his actions on those closest to him.”
The adjudicating board took into account the constable’s admission as a mitigating factor, as well as his good performance record with no prior record of discipline.
The report noted the officer had the support of not only his peers and supervisors but also his commanding officer.
The RCMP told CBC News it will not discuss details of individual discipline cases.
Based on 2010 data, MADD Canada estimates 175 Canadians are injured daily in crashes related to alcohol or drugs, with more than 1,000 deaths per year.
MADD calls impaired driving the leading criminal cause of death in Canada — nearly double the homicide rate.
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