Judge recommends RCMP update U-turn training after death of Mountie
EDMONTON — An Alberta judge says RCMP should change how it trains officers to make U-turns following the death of Mountie in a traffic crash.
The recommendation is the key finding of a fatality inquiry report into the May 2009 death of Const. James Lundblad near Millet, south of Edmonton.
Provincial court Judge Bart Rosborough recommends that RCMP should train officers to bring their vehicles to a full stop so they can check for oncoming traffic before making U-turns.
“There is no requirement that the police officer stop the vehicle and rely on that as a more significant prompting to shoulder check for traffic,” Rosborough wrote in his report released Wednesday.
“A full stopping of the vehicle would, in my opinion, constitute a much more significant break in the chain of activity involved in a U-turn and might promote the type of check that would avoid the type of collision that occurred in this case.”
Lundblad was driving north on Highway 2A and started a U-turn to pursue a speeding vehicle.
The report says the officer pulled over to right shoulder of the road and switched on his left turn signal, but did not turn on the car’s emergency lights before making the turn.
His police cruiser was hit broadside by a truck as it made the U-turn.
The report notes the Alberta’s traffic laws and rules clearly spell out that motorists can’t make U-turns unless the movement can be made safely without interfering with other traffic.
Rosborough said it is obvious that the U-turn that Lundblad made could not be made safely and resulted in his death.
The fatality inquiry report notes that making U-turns is almost a routine driving manoeuvre for police and that officers in Alberta likely perform “millions” of U-turns each year, the vast majority without incident.
But he also notes there have been four fatal or serious collisions involving police making U-turns in Alberta since 2003.
Rosborough’s report says the RCMP reviewed its U-turn policy in 2010 and found that officers sometimes fail to detect vehicles behind them before making U-turns.
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