Winnipeg police cruiser collides with van in North End crash Saturday night
Surveillance footage appears to show police car crashing into minivan
A major crash involving a Winnipeg police cruiser and a minivan shut down traffic along a major north-south route Saturday evening.
In security camera footage obtained by CBC News, a police vehicle can be seen taking a left turn off Salter Street seconds before another marked car appears to drive through a stop sign and collide with a minivan while travelling northeast down Aberdeen Avenue in the North End.
Watch home security footage that shows the collision between the police cruiser and minivan Saturday night:
Leo Fradin peeked out the front door of his home on Salter Street when he heard a loud sound around 7:20 p.m. Saturday night.
"It was a loud bang, loud enough to make me go look outside," said Fradin. Then he checked his home surveillance camera for the video to find out what happened.
"They were just flying through the stop sign without lights on, no siren, no nothing, just flying," Fradin said about what he saw on the video.
"When we looked at the footage, it was cops getting out of the cop car," he said.
Fradin said he has been living down the street from where the crash happened for ten years. He said he sees a lot of police cars in the area, but has never seen something like this.
"Somebody was driving pretty carelessly. Not the guy who got hit," he said.
On Saturday night, officials with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said four people were taken to hospital. They were all in stable condition, a spokesperson said.
Two ambulances at the scene when CBC News arrived left quietly without their sirens on at about 8 p.m.
Multiple emergency vehicles were present in the aftermath of the crash. A damaged police cruiser – its front end smashed in – sat in the middle of the northbound lanes while just metres away, a Dodge minivan lay overturned in the road.
Paramedics were seen treating one man and taking him into an ambulance on a stretcher from the back of a police car following the crash.
The man seen treated at the scene was somehow briefly locked inside a police cruiser (not the damaged one), and crews worked with a tool to unlock the car's doors.
The man, who appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s, was seen trembling on the ground as medics attended to him.
An ambulance returned to the scene and he was placed inside it, on a stretcher.
A white bicycle with a damaged rear tire had been placed up on the front of the police cruiser's grill bars.
Police confirmed Sunday that their cruiser car was involved in a crash Saturday evening where it was crossing the intersection and collided with a van on Salter Avenue. Police said officers were in the area for a unrelated incident when the collision happened.
Const. Rob Carver said in an email that six people were taken to hospital, including the two officers in the cruiser.
The road was shut down until approximately 3:15 a.m.
Police said there was no cyclist involved in a crash.
Carver said he had no other information. He was unable to confirm who received medical attention.
With files from James Turner, Nelly Gonzalez and Dana Hatherly