Winnipeg officer fined for 'high-risk' highway U-turn in 2023 that sent civilian, partner to hospital

A Winnipeg police officer accused of driving carelessly on the job has been fined $350 for a highway crash caused by a "high-risk" U-turn he made last year that sent him, his partner and a civilian driving by to hospital.

Winnipeg Police Service Const. Ian Case pleaded guilty last month to violating a section of the Highway Traffic Act that requires officers to drive with due regard to safety if they need to break normal traffic rules while pursuing suspects, in connection with a January 2023 collision that happened while Case and other officers were tracking a suspect into the city.

Case was originally ticketed inJune 2023 under the Provincial Offences Act for careless driving and making an unauthorized U-turn, after an investigation into the incident by the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, the province's police watchdog.

At the time of the crash, Case was working in a specialized police unit that was tracking a vehicle. The unitplanned to detain the driver in "essentially a takedown" when the vehicle arrived in Winnipeg, Crown attorney Matthew Dueck told a Steinbach court on July 10.

But as the vehicle approached the capital city, it suddenly pulled onto the shoulder between the Highway 12 turnoff to Steinbach and the Perimeter Highway, raising suspicions the driver knew police were tracking him, court heard.

Case ended up on the shoulder aheadof that vehicle and watched it in his mirrors as he waited for direction from the officer in charge on what to do. When the call came to detain the driver, even though hehadn't yet reached Winnipeg, Case quickly tried to do a U-turn to driveback toward the suspect's vehicle and ended up crashing into an oncoming civilian vehicle that was going just over 100 km/h.

Case andhis partner, who was in the vehicle with him,were taken to hospital, along withthe driver of the other vehicle. Only Case was left with lasting injuries, whichincluded a severe concussion and continuing back issues, his lawyer Josh Weinstein said.

'Very sorry': officer

Case said before making the turn, he was rolling on the shoulder watching traffic as he waited for the decision on what he should do next, and he's not sure how he missed the vehicle he crashed into.

"I take driver safety extremely seriously. I'm very disappointed that this happened and I'm tremendously sorry that, you know, I involved other people that were injured," he told provincial court Judge Darcie Yale.

"Obviously I'm at fault for that, but like I said, I am very sorry that this did occur."

Prosecutor Dueck said while Case's decision to make the "fairly high-risk manoeuvre" was "obviously understandable" given the situation, he still had an obligation to ensure public safety while doing his job.

"I would say in the circumstances of this incident in a high-speed zone on a busy thoroughfare, conducting a U-turn to travel the wrong direction down a highway, that obligation was only more heightened," Dueck told

Court heard the civilian driver said they didn't remember if Case's lights and sirens were on when the crash happened, though the officer's partner said she remembered seeing him activate the vehicle's lights and do a shoulder check before making the turn.

The Crown had asked for Case to be fined somewhere around $672, while the officer's lawyer requested a fine closer to $200.

Court heard Case has an excellent driving history and has been with the Winnipeg Police Service for over 14 years. At the time of his court appearance last month, he was 40 years old and married with a one-and-a-half-year-old child.

Media attention among consequences: lawyer

Defence lawyer Weinstein noted Case's guilty plea saved the civilian witness in the case from having to travel to Manitoba from another province for a trial, and added that the officer has suffered collateral consequences of the incident, including the media attention it garnered.

"If a regular civilian is charged with careless driving and [making an] unlawful left turn, there's, I would say, no doubt that it's not going to be in the media. This was, because he's an officer," Weinstein said.

"That is sort of over and above what any of us would usually experience that the magnifying glass is put on an officer even for Highway Traffic Act offences and it becomes news."

In handing down Case's fine, Judge Yale called the situation "unfortunate."

"I appreciate that there were very dynamic issues that were unfolding in the course of Const. Case's work and that there were high issues with respect to public safety, and that that was front of mind when he was operating the vehicle in the course of his employment," the judge said.

"I also appreciate that, that being said, there is always that responsibility to take care for public [safety] and to ensure that any manoeuvrestaken are with due regard to [the] safety of the people around you."