RCMP officer charged for fatal pedestrian highway crash

An RCMP constable has been charged in a 2016 fatal crash near Anzac — southeast of Fort McMurray — that killed one man and seriously injured a second man.

The Alberta Serious Response Team (ASIRT) investigated the crash and determined the officer should be charged, ASIRT said in a release Friday.

The officer was responding to reports of a collision between a pickup and a pedestrian in the early hours of Aug. 21, 2016.

The 41-year-old pedestrian was walking on Highway 881 when he was hit and seriously injured, ASIRT said.

The highway was poorly lit and the exact location of the collision was not known.

While responding at an “extremely high rate of speed,” the officer approached a number of vehicles stopped on one side of the highway with their lights on, ASIRT said.

The officer drove past the vehicles without slowing down and ran over the pedestrian, killing him.

Emergency Medical Services pronounced the pedestrian dead at the scene.

A 71-year-old man who was helping the pedestrian was also struck and suffered serious injuries to his hand.

Const. Michelle Phillips has been charged with one count of dangerous driving causing death and one count of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Phillips is scheduled to appear in Fort McMurray Provincial Court on Aug. 2, 2017.

At the time of the collision, the occupants of the vehicle that first hit the pedestrian stopped, reported the collision and attempted to help the man.

Friends identified the victim as Tracy Lyle Janvier of Janvier, a community about 400 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.