Police have charged a man with failing to proceed safely through a stop sign following a two-vehicle collision at the Clyde corner late Friday morning that restricted traffic for nearly half an hour.
RCMP say that at around 11:20 a.m., a Dodge Dakota travelling eastbound on Highway 18 struck a GMC Jimmy turning right onto Highway 18 off Highway 2.
As a result of the collision, the GMC tipped over and landed on the passenger side in the middle of the intersection, said Westlock RCMP Const. Luke Szajkowski, who added the crash could have been worse.
“It wasn’t at a high speed,” he said. “The Dakota slowed down quite a bit, fortunately, before the collision.”
The driver of the Dakota suffered non-life-threatening injuries — dizziness and some bruising — and was transported to hospital via ground ambulance for observation, Szajkowski said.
The three occupants of the GMC were all treated at the scene, with the most severe injuries being suffered by a young child who had a few teeth knocked out, he said. The remaining two occupants were more or less fine.
Through speaking with the drivers and witnesses, Szajkowski said it was determined the driver of the GMC was at fault, and subsequently charged with failing to proceed through a stop sign when clear.
Speed and alcohol were not factors in the collision. All four occupants were wearing their seatbelts.
When the RCMP, EMS and town and county fire departments arrived on scene, they shut down the intersection. However, once they had sorted out what happened, they partially reopened the intersection to allow the backlog of traffic to move until tow trucks arrived to move the vehicles off the road.
Szajkowski said the collision and the history of incidents at the intersection are a perfect reminder of how important it is for drivers to always pay attention to their surroundings.
“It goes back to basic driver training,” he said. “Look both ways very carefully and make sure it’s clear before proceeding.”
RCMP are regularly at the Clyde corner dealing with one incident or another, and in many cases the situations are similar, he said. “It usually is people simply failing to proceed when it’s safe to do so,” he said.
