When a woman was having trouble crossing a busy intersection in Selkirk, Manitoba, Rick Ritchie’s dash cam was there to capture every second.
The video shows the pedestrian waiting on the side of the road as cars continue to speed through the marked crosswalk.
Ritchie, who is a courier driver with Red River Messenger, drives through this intersection at Manitoba Ave. and Jemima St. every day. On this particular Friday, when he stopped at the crosswalk and noticed that other drivers weren’t doing the same, he stepped right out of the car in his reflective vest to intervene.
He can be seen waving and signaling to the other cars to stop and allow the pedestrian to cross. The woman does just that, and then gives Ritchie a grateful wave before walking on.
“She was going to get hit. At least I got stripes,” Ritchie told CTV Winnipeg’s Josh Crabb when asked what made him get out of his vehicle.
Selkirk RCMP Staff Sgt. Jared Hall confirmed that officers would be increasing patrols in the area, agreeing that by law, the drivers should have stopped for the pedestrian.
As for upcoming changes being made to the crosswalk, the City of Selkirk said there were plans to repaint the crosswalk lines when the weather clears up.
After Ritchie’s manager posted the dash cam video to Facebook, it was shared hundreds of times. Ritchie hopes the video will encourage its viewers to be more careful when they approach marked crosswalks.
While the RCMP certainly does not object to safer driving on Manitoba’s roads, they advise against intervening in the same way that Ritchie did.
With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Josh Crabb
