Good Samaritan concerned about CAA Manitoba policy requiring driver to be with car

A Winnipeg woman says she has concerns after CAA Manitobatold her an elderly man hadto stay with his vehicle strandedin the ditch in extreme cold weather.

Paige Lloyd saw a car in the ditch as she drovesouth on Highway 59, about 10 kilometres north of South Beach Casino, on Saturday night. She stopped to see if she could help.

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"He was struggling to climb out of the ditch. He was struggling with breathing," she said. "Mostly his pride was hurt. He was embarrassed he had driven off the road."

Lloyd offered to call CAA as she drove the man to the casino.

"It wasn't safe for us to be sitting there on the side of the highway, just because it was so slippery right in that corner," she said.There was alsoa localized storm in the area where the man was stuck, she said.

The CAA dispatcher told them the man had to stay with hisvehicle until a tow truck arrived, Lloyd said.

She told the dispatcher she was bringing the CAA member to the casino because that was the only safe thing to do, she said.

"At that point they told me that the member had to remain with the vehicle or be with the vehicle when CAA arrived," she said. "I can't believe their policy doesn't prioritize the safety of their members."

She said she asked the dispatcher if CAA could pick up the member at the casino and bring him to his car.

"He said, 'Ma'am, I cannot dispatch CAA if the member's not with the vehicle,'" Lloyd said.

She told the dispatcher it wasn't safe to leave the man near the highway.

"Surely at that point logic should have taken over and he should have said, OK, let's make arrangements for the member to remain safe while we wait."

The dispatcher said, "I'm sorry, that's our policy," Lloyd said.

Lloyd couldn't wait with the man so she left him in the casino lobby. The man told her he knew the tow truck driver who had been dispatched, which alleviated her concern, she said.

Liz Kulyk, a spokesperson for CAA Manitoba, said in the end, the tow truck driver did pick the man up at the casino.

The organization's policy doesn't require people to stay with their vehicle in order to get help, but they do need to be on scene when the service truck arrives to make sure the person calling is the owner of the vehicle, she said.

"In this case we didn't advise him to stay in the car. We just said, you do need to be on scene when the service truck arrives," she said. "There are some situations where staying with your vehicle is actually the safest thing and in this case, thankfully this woman saw the accident and she went down and helped."

Kulyk said even if the man called the RCMP or a friend, it would have taken some time for help to arrive.

"Thankfully it actually wasn't cold," shesaid. "He would have been OK making that call to CAA and then at that point, if he decided he needed to go and get more help, it is his choice to try to flag down somebody on the side of the road."

If it was cold, carrying a roadside emergency kit in his car could have helped, Kulyksaid.

CAA called a contracted tow truck driver within minutes of getting off the phone with Lloyd, Kulyk said.

"It was the first call in his queue and he said, 'I'm 40 miles away, so it's going to be a little bit of time, but he's my first call.'"

The contractor called the man and arranged to pick him up at the casino and drive him to his car.

"We need to be flexible and I guarantee we are flexible," she said. "We've spoken to the member now twice just to make sure everything was OK, and he was very thrilled with the service, because his car was very, very stuck in the ditch."