Driver facing charges in chase, crash

A man is facing charges after a meeting to sell an item led to a fight, a vehicle chase and a crash in which both trucks rolled.

RCMP said Monday a pre-arranged meeting to sell an item escalated into a fight, which led to one truck chasing another and causing the crash in the Rural Municipality of East St. Paul on Wednesday night.

Five people were hurt in the collision on Raleigh Street just south of Pritchard Farm Road in the Rural Municipality of East St. Paul. (Supplied)

Five people were hurt in the collision on Raleigh Street just south of Pritchard Farm Road in the Rural Municipality of East St. Paul. (Supplied)

The would-be seller of the item and driver of the pursuing Nissan pickup truck, a 30-year-old Winnipeg man, is facing four counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and four counts of assault with a weapon. He was released.

The four people in a Dodge pickup truck were taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. STARS air ambulance flew two men to Health Sciences Centre. The four — three men, ages 37, 30 and 26, and a 23-year-old woman — are all from Winnipeg.

Video from a home security system showed sparks flying while the trucks collided and flipped into a ditch next to a path for pedestrians and cyclists.

Witnesses told the Free Press last week the crash was apparently preceded by a near-fistfight in a convenience store parking lot. The crash happened on Raleigh Street, just south of Pritchard Farm Road, a short time later, at about 8:15 p.m.

SUPPLIED Two men square off in the parking lot of an East St. Paul convenience store last week.

SUPPLIED

Two men square off in the parking lot of an East St. Paul convenience store last week.

Cellphone video recorded by a customer at Garven Convenience, located about 5 km away in the RM of Springfield, showed a man taking a swing at another man, who appeared to dodge the punch while backing away.

The customer said he was sitting in his vehicle outside the store and that he couldn’t hear what the men or other people nearby were saying.

RCMP would not confirm last week whether the same people were involved in the fight and the collision. A man at the store said officers went there to look at video of the altercation.

STARS ambulance in east st. paul crash footage
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