THUNDER BAY – A 25-year-old Thunder Bay man has been arrested after allegedly striking two children while driving impaired over the weekend, sending them to hospital with serious injuries.
The injuries were not expected to be life-threatening but required treatment in hospital, the Thunder Bay Police Service indicated on Monday.
Officers were dispatched to the Northwood Park Plaza on Edward Street just before 6 p.m. on Saturday to respond to the incident.
Initial reports indicated the driver struck the two children, aged eight and 10, as well as a parked vehicle in the plaza’s parking lot before fleeing the scene.
An investigation led police to locate the vehicle at a residential address “a very short distance away,” Insp. Ryan Gibson told TBnewswatch, arresting the driver.
Dawson Duncan, 25, of Thunder Bay faces two counts of dangerous operation causing bodily harm, two counts of impaired operation causing bodily harm, failure to stop after an accident causing bodily harm, failure to comply with a release order, and impaired operation with blood-alchohol concentration of 80-plus.
Duncan was remanded into custody at the Thunder Bay District Jail. None of the charges have been tested in court.
Gibson said the vehicle had jumped a sidewalk and struck the building while also striking the two children.
He described the quick actions of the children’s grandfather in that moment as potentially life-saving.
“The grandfather was with them and he managed to pull them out of the way just in time as they were being struck, so he obviously lessened the injuries that would have occurred to them otherwise,” he said.
“I would say the children are very fortunate, so we're very happy with that in such a terrible circumstance.”
The children were attended to at the scene by firefighters and paramedics before being taken to hospital.
Gibson emphasized there was no fault on the part of the pedestrians in the incident.
“I can't stress this enough, this is entirely on the driver,” he said. “This was three people, two children and their grandfather, on a sidewalk coming out of the business. They were doing nothing but minding their own business. So it’s a terrible event, it shouldn’t have happened.”
He called Saturday’s arrest an example of why the TBPS will have a focus on enforcing impaired driving laws over the holiday period.
“Obviously, we're very concerned with the amount of impaired driving that's going on,” he said. “On top of that, we’ve run three separate ride programs this weekend, we've had three people arrested as a result of that – two for failure to provide and one for impaired by drug.”
“So along with this messaging for this very serious occurrence, we're just trying to get that message out there that you cannot be impaired and be driving your vehicles – and if so, there's some significant consequences, not just if you're arrested and convicted, but also if you were to injure or kill someone.”
