RCMP suspects driver was texting during near miss with Mountie

A near miss on the highway for a Mountie is concerning for the officer in charge of Saskatchewan RCMP Traffic Services, who suspects the driver was texting.

Superintendent Grant St. Germaine said it was an unsettling situation for the officer after an SUV flew by a traffic stop on Highway 16 near Lashburn last Thursday at 114 km/h, ran into the police vehicle and missed the officer by mere inches.

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“You’re sitting on the side of the road doing your job, and somebody almost runs you over. Any normal person would be relatively shaken up with it,” St. Germaine said.

“I suspect because of the nature of the work that we do, he’s probably in a little bit better shape than the average citizen would be, but yeah, shaken up for sure.”

St. Germaine pointed to a similar situation that he said happened earlier this year on Highway 1 near Grand Coulee, when an officer had to jump into a ditch as a semi drove down the highway directly towards him, taking off the back end of a police vehicle in the process.

“It’s scary. It concerns me because we’ve got people on the road that are driving vehicles that are weighing thousands of pounds and are texting,” said St. Germaine.

St. Germaine said he suspects the driver in the Highway 16 incident was also using their phone at the time.

“I suspect in this case, this person was texting, because I don’t understand how you could drive down a four-lane highway, there’s a police car on the side of the road with the lights going, and you don’t slow down, and you actually end up running into the police car,” St. Germaine said, adding that the driver was not in medical distress.

St. Germaine said it’s not uncommon for people to be distracted while they’re behind the wheel.

“We get a lot of complaints in the province of Saskatchewan that come in as impaired drivers, when in fact it’s somebody texting on their phone or looking at a screen or not paying attention to what they’re doing, and they’re driving down the roads at 100 km/h to 120 km/h, not paying any attention,” he explained.

St. Germaine added that an “awful lot of people” in the province don’t understand or pay attention to the rules of the road.

“That, unfortunately, is commonplace in Saskatchewan on the roads here, and that’s part of the reason we have as many fatalities as we have,” he said.

“People simply don’t pay attention to the rules of the road. They don’t think they apply to them, and we end up with the things that happen, such as this near miss with the member doing a traffic stop.”

St. Germaine said near misses and distracted drivers leave officers concerned for their safety.

“Honestly, it’s terrifying for the members that are out there,” he said.

“In addition to the members that are there and are stopping somebody for a legitimate reason, that person is at risk as well.”

According to the Mounties, as Tuesday morning there have been 74 deadly crashes leading to 89 deaths on roads policed by the Saskatchewan RCMP in 2026.

St. Germaine said the frustrating part for police is the fact deadly crashes and near misses on the highway are frequently preventable.

“My guys and girls are out there stopping vehicles for legitimate reasons, but if people would do what they were supposed to do, we wouldn’t have any vehicles to stop,” he said.

“When you get in a vehicle, the vehicle doesn’t speed on its own; somebody had to apply their foot to the gas pedal and make a conscious decision to go over the speed limit, or make a conscious decision to text while they’re driving, all of which is illegal.”

St. Germaine said the reality is that most people are driving 10-15 km/h over the speed limit on most roads in the province.

“If the speed limit was safe to drive at 120 km/h, they would post it at 120 km/h. They posted at 100 km/h. It doesn’t mean 115 km/h or, as you’ve seen and we see all the time, 150, 160 or 170 km/h,” he said.

“It’s your life or somebody else’s life that’s on the line when you make those choices, and it’s all preventable, so do your part to keep the road safe.”