A 24-year-old Sable River man is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after fleeing an RCMP checkpoint early Saturday morning. (File photo from RCMP NS Facebook page)

An early-morning checkpoint and a flight from police have left a 24-year-old Sable River man in hospital with life-threatening injuries.

About 1 a.m on Saturday morning, Queens District RCMP officers had a checkpoint set up on Milton Road near Liverpool. A Volkswagen Golf approached and then made an abrupt U-turn to head north on Highway 8.

According to a news release, an RCMP officer immediately left the scene to try to stop the Golf.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay told QCCR on Monday that the cruiser was not involved in the crash. The officer found the car off the road and on its roof.

Along with the driver who was sent to hospital with life-threatening injuries, the car’s passenger was also injured. She is a 25-year-old woman from East Green Harbour. Her injuries were not life-threatening. 

Cpl. Tremblay did not have an update Monday on their conditions.

“Our officers will do checkpoints at random times throughout the day. From my experience, 1 a.m. is not abnormal. We often do checkponts through the night to conduct traffic enforcement such as impaired drivers that might be out there,” he said in an intervew.

“Oftentimes, there could be many reasons why someone may conduct a U-turn before a checkpoint. It could be a legitimate reason, but it could also be a reason because the person could be impaired, it could be because they don’t have a drivers licence, it could be because they’re wanted. And oftentimes our officers will then get in their vehicle and try to pull over the vehicle that proceeds with the U-turn.” 

Cpl. Tremblay did not know exactly where on the Milton Road the checkpoint was set up.

Highway 8 was closed for several hours, while a collision reconstructionist visited the scene. 

Cpl. Tremblay says officers continue to investigate.

“The investigation remains ongoing. That could involve criminal charges such as flight from police. The same goes for any impairment level. Our officers would be looking to obtain search warrants or warrants to seize any blood … just to determine if the person was impaired at the time of the crash or not.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Ronnie Conrad on the West Berlin Wharf on Friday, on the last day of lobster fishing season. (Rick Conrad)

Friday was the last day of lobster fishing season on Nova Scotia’s South Shore.

And fishermen at wharves in Queens County say it was a good one.

Ronnie Conrad of West Berlin has been fishing for 44 years. He said conditions on the water were rougher than last year, with more wind, but catches were up. 

“(It’s) been a real good season. It started off good, but it didn’t sound like it was going to be a real good season all over, but I call it a real good season.

“We were up probably stock-wise another 25, 30 per cent.”

Almost 1,700 licensed vessels fish along Nova Scotia’s southwestern shore, from Cow Bay near Halifax, around the southwestern end of the province to the Bay of Fundy.

The season opened in lobster fishing area 33 on Nov. 26. That’s the area from Cow Bay to Shelburne. And it began a couple of days later in LFA 34, which takes in the rest of southwestern Nova Scotia to Digby County. 

Conrad said he thinks most fishermen in both districts did well.

“Overall, I think everybody came out pretty good. Southwest, District 34, was down all fall and all winter, but they had a real good spring. So that was a plus for them.”

He said he usually fishes about 25 kilometres off shore in the winter time, leaving at 3 in the morning and getting back about 12 hours later. And for the first few days of the season, if catches are good, he and his crew will be out for up to 20 hours, hauling as many as 500 traps total, double what they would do on a normal day.

This year, though, he decided to stick closer to the coast.

“Normally, I go out there probably about 16, 17 miles in the wintertime. But this year, I didn’t venture out that far because there weren’t any lobsters offshore.

“It got cold quick. It started off colder than last year too. It keeps the catch down. Lobster won’t crawl in cold water. This spring it warmed up quick and we had an excellent spring. Everywhere along the coast we had a real good spring.”

Lobster fisherman Mike Mattatall unloaded his last catch of the season at the wharf in Port Medway on Friday. (Rick Conrad)

38-year-old Mike Mattatall from Sable River has been fishing most of his life. For the past three years, he’s had his own boat out of Port Medway. 

“Every season is so different. Last year was probably a little more in catch, but the average price through the winter helped sell some more lobsters through (last) winter because the water was warmer. Colder water made the winter pretty slow this year.”

Mattatall said prices started out around $9 a pound this season, went up as high as $20 in the winter when the catch was scarce and settled around $7 a pound this spring.

Just because the season’s over, though, it doesn’t mean the work stops. Fishermen will spend the summer and fall fixing up their boats, building new traps and spending some time with their families.

But you won’t hear people like Mattatall and Conrad complain.

“It’s a lifestyle, though. I don’t really know what it is, comparable to other kind of work. You’d probably have to come do it and tell me how much different it is than your job. It depends on who you are. We don’t find it hard. We like it.”

Conrad says he’s not going to retire yet.

“My wife wants me to be done now, but the money’s just too good yet, so I’m gonna hang in for another year or two anyway.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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