Rollover starts a series of unfortunate events

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since publication, paNOW has contacted the owner of Shell Lake ESSO. We’ve included the owner’s comments within an updated version of the story. We apologize for the omission.

Two Prince Albert men are troubled by how people reacted to their calls for help after a rollover near Shell Lake.

On Tuesday, Neil Perry was driving with a co-worker around 7 a.m. on Highway 3 when a semi passed and things took a turn for the worse, partly because the highway had not yet been plowed after snowfall the night before.

 “He kicked up a big plume of snow and I couldn’t see,” Perry recounted the morning of the accident.

He tried to slow his truck down and pull to the road’s right side, but Perry steered left to get back on the road after hitting a soft shoulder. That overcorrection made the truck slide across the highway to the other side of the ditch. He steered into the ditch and kept off the brakes.

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 “I was just praying that another vehicle isn’t coming in the other direction when we hit the ditch. It was kinda happening in slow motion and I was like ‘this is not good,’” Perry said.

Things seemed to be working out for Perry and his passenger, Michael Zwack.

“We were sliding through the snow, and I was like ‘that’s great we’ll just be stuck in the ditch.’”

But, the truck then rolled.

“The adrenaline was really high. Just suddenly hanging upside down, we were trying to absorb it all in,” he said.

During the accident, Perry’s truck’s Bluetooth system already connected to 911. Once Perry told them they were alright, aside from some soreness and “little cuts on our hands from crawling out on broken glass” they were passed on to the RCMP.

Stuck outside on a windy and cold winter morning they were in need of shelter and help. However, when the officer heard the men weren’t hurt, Perry said he felt any urgency went out the window.

“He just kind of blew it off. He was like, ‘oh you’re OK.’”

The officer said it would be about an hour before he could make it out to the men. Instead, they called a family member for a ride and started grabbing items from the truck that they wanted to hang onto.

Perry said he appreciated many people pulling over to offer a ride, and a “nice couple” drove the two men to a gas station near Shell Lake.

Again, the men ran into what they viewed as insensitivity as they waited for their ride.

“The people who owned the store, they really didn’t want us in their store either. It’s like they didn’t trust us or something. Like, we bought a cup of coffee. We just wanted to stand in there and warm up and they decided to shovel their sidewalk. So they kicked us out,”

The whole interaction was awkward, Perry said, as the men had to stand outside the store before it opened and then were asked to go outdoors after getting only 10 minutes to warm up.

The owner did let them stand inside for a few more minutes after Perry’s co-worker got upset about the situation.

Shell Lake ESSO owner Seunny Kim was involved in the incident. Kim said she felt the men were treated respectfully by herself and her husband, and that the men only had to stand outside while she shoveled the snow outside for five to 10 minutes.

She confirmed that she locked the door during that time, but said the men had been smoking at that time.

Zwack’s mother, Jamie Petit, came to pick them up.  

Unfortunately, the day didn’t get better from there.

Petit was having trouble seeing on the roads, so Zwack took the wheel.

Zwack had a suspended license and was pulled over by the RCMP as they drove back to Prince Albert. Another RCMP cruiser was on hand quickly, Perry said.

The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on Perry.

“You can come here that fast for this, but you can’t get there that fast to help us when we flip our truck. Like, what is going on here? And that’s what we told him, we were like ‘this is ridiculous.’”

Zwack was charged, according to his mother, Jamie Petit.

RCMP explains their perspective

When paNOW contacted the RCMP to respond to Perry’s concerns, they added some extra context to the situation.

The reason this officer would have taken an hour to arrive is that he was from the Pelican Lake detachment.  He would likely have been at home to take the call, and because of adverse weather that morning, said Mandy Maier, a communications officer for the RCMP, it would take longer.

 The closer detachment wasn’t open at that time, and the complaint of the rollover didn’t make it to their office until paNOW contacted the RCMP, Maier said.

After that, the RCMP contacted Perry to discuss the issues.

“I let him know that it looked really bad on their part how they dealt with us,” Perry said about that conversation. 

To Perry, it seemed some miscommunication from RCMP led to the events of Tuesday morning. That’s something he said he can empathize with.

He said it felt good to get that off his chest and appreciated the call from RCMP, but he still said the hard feelings from Tuesday are still with him.

claskowski@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk