A Winnipeg officer who ran a red light in a police cruiser without first checking if the intersection was clear, causing a two-vehicle crash, has been fined under the Highway Traffic Act.
Winnipeg Police Service Const. Landan Ramage was charged with failing to use a siren and failing to drive without due regard to safety following an Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba probe into the April 16, 2023 crash at Notre Dame Avenue and Donald Street.
The collision, at about 6 p.m., left a woman, whose sedan the police officer struck, with a fracture to her finger and a knee injury, court heard. Ramage suffered a concussion.
A police officer for 12 years with an otherwise clean driving record, Ramage pleaded guilty to driving without due regard at an appearance before provincial court Judge Sandra Chapman on April 26. The other charge was stayed.
He was fined $174 on a joint recommendation from Crown prosecutor Nick Reeves and defence lawyer Lisa Labossiere.
Ramage was driving a marked Winnipeg police SUV with his partner in the passenger seat when he saw a Chrysler being driven erratically downtown. Another officer driving an unmarked car was following the erratic driver.
Ramage, court heard, thought the vehicle posed a threat to public safety as it failed to follow traffic signs, so began to follow it with a “long eye.”
He properly cleared the intersections prior to Notre Dame and Donald Street, but that intersection was obscured by a building, court heard.
Ramage entered the intersection without slowing down on a red light and struck the front left of a sedan as it travelled south on Donald.
The police cruiser crashed into the side of a building at the corner of the intersection.
Reeves told court that Ramage hit the brake and steered left a second before the collision. Before that, he had been travelling at 81 kilometres an hour, but slowed to 67 km/h at the moment of impact, Reeves said.
It was a 50 km/h zone.
Ramage’s defence lawyer said the officer was, in that moment, driving without regard to public safety.
“He certainly never intended to not clear that particular intersection, he never intended to drive without due regard to public safety, certainly, as indicated, was in lawful execution of his duties,” Labossiere told court.
The constable has no memory of the collision following his concussion, she said, and needed time away from work after the incident. The injured woman did not require surgery.
“He would never want to put anyone at risk, the public or even himself or his partner, he has a family and it’s his job every day to make sure that he stays safe and gets home to his family,” she said.
Chapman, who accepted the recommendation, said she thought the collision was out of character, considering his 12 years of service without similar incidents.
The independent investigation unit probes all serious incidents involving police in the province.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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