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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The roads in Yellowknife are usually calm and quiet on Sunday mornings. But that wasn't the case last weekend on Old Airport Road.

A Yellowknife resident, who asked not to be named, witnessed the erratic driving of a grey pickup truck driver at about 9:20 a.m. and followed behind while informing Yellowknife RCMP.

According to the eyewitness, the driver of the pickup turned right from Borden Drive onto Old Airport Road into the left lane facing oncoming traffic. At the curve in Old Airport Road near the Yellowknife Co-op, the driver stopped bumper to bumper with a red minivan before reversing and driving around the truck. The driver then continued on in the left lane. Other oncoming vehicles pulled over to make way for the pickup truck.

"He accelerated above the speed limit, still on the wrong side of the road, and ran the red light at Old Airport Road and Borden Drive near Wal-Mart, which is a busy intersection at any time of day," the witness said. "Lives were in danger, no question."

The driver confronted a semi-truck, stopping bumper to bumper again, near the intersection of Byrne Road and Old Airport Road. According to the eyewitness, both trucks remained stationary for at least 30 seconds.

The pickup driver then reversed and drove into the right-hand traffic lane and turned right onto Kam Lake Road. He stopped at a red light at the intersection of Kam Lake Road and Woolgar Avenue and when the light turned green, the truck reversed more than three metres and stopped for about a minute before speeding through the light just before it turned red and continued on Kam Lake Road, turning right on Finlayson Drive.

The witness, who said his passenger had given the RCMP the licence plate number of the truck while talking via speaker phone, said RCMP informed him officers were on the way to intercept the driver.

"The guy stopped briefly beside N.J. Macpherson School, a school zone, then suddenly accelerated right through the stop sign at Range Lake Road without slowing down," the witness said. "Whatever his problem was, he wasn't thinking rationally."

Two RCMP vehicles stopped the vehicle after it turned left onto Range Lake Road from Finlayson but then let the driver proceed.

The police did not take the driver off the road because he showed no sign of impairment, Staff Sgt. Brad Kaeding told Yellowknifer on Wednesday.

"Most of the driving investigations start with the observations of the investigators or the police officers involved. You can't just ask any person to submit to a breath test. You have to have reasonable and probable grounds to do so," said Kaeding.

Without any signs of drinking, any odour, or any liquor containers in the vehicle, the officers don't have the legal grounds to request that a person submit to a breath test, he said. Although the driver wasn't charged and wasn't suspended from driving, there is still a strong possibility the person could be charged with driving without due care and attention, driving on the wrong side of the road, or failing to stop at a traffic light - depending on the information that is obtained from the witnesses and a cab driver who also reported the incident, according to Kaeding.

Kaeding said if the driver is charged with one or more traffic offences, he may have to pay a fine and if he chooses not to pay a fine, a trial would be set where witness statements would be heard. A Justice of the Peace would make a decision on whether this person was guilty or not guilty of the offences. Kaeding said reckless driving must also be looked at case by case. If the reckless driving is done intentionally, there are territorial or criminal code charges that would come into play. If it's a mistake, most likely a ticket for driving without due care and attention would be issued.

"It does depend totally on the situation as it's discovered at the time," said Kaeding.

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