A stolen truck flipped and rolled last Wednesday (Oct. 1) morning in a residential neighbourhood of Slave Lake. According to (officially unconfirmed) reports, that was just the end of a goose chase that left a smashed police cruiser and a broken gas pump in its wake.
The truck, belonging to the pipeline company Trans Canada, was reportedly stolen in the Athabasca area and was picked up by Slave Lake RCMP as it came into their jurisdiction, sometime after 5:30 a.m. Const. Ray Tardif describes the scenario: “While patrolling Hwy. 2, police noted a vehicle matching the description passing other vehicles at a speed in excess of 150 km/hr. Attempts to catch the vehicle were unsuccessful due to high speeds, limited visibility and the accused shutting off his lights in heavy fog…. A short time after losing sight of the suspect vehicle, it was again noted passing by police in the opposite direction.”
That would have been towards Westlock. The officer gave chase and may have been somewhat surprised to come upon the vehicle at a dead stop in the middle of the highway. Parked behind the truck, the officer set about obtaining license information on it. Tardif continues the story:
“The accused put the vehicle into reverse, ramming the police (car), rendering it inoperable. The suspect vehicle then fled the scene heading east… Approximately 10 minutes later the suspect vehicle was observed heading west back towards Slave Lake.”
The officer was pretty shaken up. Slave Lake ambulance personnel were soon on the scene and transported him to hospital in Slave Lake on a spine board. Tardif says it turned out he was not seriously injured.
“He’s pretty stiff and sore this morning,” Tardif said on Thursday morning, “but he’s expecting to have a full recovery soon.”
Meanwhile, other RCMP members laid a spike belt for the truck, but that didn’t work. The vehicle entered town unmolested – but with RCMP again in pursuit – and turned into the new Shell gas station at Main St. and Hwy. 2. It drove over one of the gas pumps, leaving it in a shambles.
“Police attempted to block the suspect vehicle in the parking lot,” Tardif continues, “but the accused drove around the blockade and continued to travel down Main St. into a residential neighbourhood (Gloryland) at a high rate of speed.” That’s where the story ends. The truck went into the ditch on Pioneer Driver, SW, and flipped over spreading its contents across a lawn and leaving a couple of fair-sized divots from the skid that preceded the rollover.
When police arrived on the scene they found a woman, whom they believe to be the passenger, “walking around the vehicle and the driver was hanging upside down from his seatbelt, pinned in the driver’s seat.”
Firefighters extricated the driver, who was taken to Slave Lake hospital by ambulance. Police describe his injuries as “non life-threatening” although he had “severe facial lacerations.”
The female passenger was uninjured, police say.
The 32-year-old Edson man and 31-year-old Whitecourt woman face numerous charges, including flight from police, assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, dangerous driving causing bodily harm, possession of stolen property and assault on a police officer.
Police consider that alcohol may have been a factor in the incident.

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