Pembina Valley RCMP are reporting a 29-year-old woman was recently charged with three offences after her 13-year-old daughter and her six friends were in a collision involving an off-road vehicle (ORV).
Police say that the seven female youths, all aged 13 and under, were riding together on the side-by-side ORV when they lost control on the gravel and the ORV rolled into the ditch, throwing all the riders. As a result, one of the 13-year-old youths was transported to Winnipeg hospital with serious injuries. A second girl was transported to local hospital with minor physical injuries. Police noted that none of the youths were wearing helmets or safety equipment.
RCMP report that the 29-year-old woman is now facing multiple charges related to the dangerous operation of the ORV.
“We take these incidents extremely seriously,” said Staff Sergeant Brent Mattice, Area Commander for Pembina Valley RCMP. “This could easily have been a much more tragic outcome. These machines are not for unsupervised children. They are not a toy. A fun ride can go bad quickly, as was the case here. The laws are there to keep people safe, and we are enforcing them.”
RCMP officials say that in the last three years (2019-2021), in Manitoba RCMP jurisdiction, there have been 116 serious injury collisions involving all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes, and utility-terrain vehicles. Of those incidents, 18 were fatalities. RCMP also noted that there were more serious injury collisions and fatalities involving those types of vehicles than there were involving motorcycles (55/15). ATVs had the highest numbers at 76 serious injury collisions and 16 fatalities.
