Salmon Arm mother busted trying to cover for son after crash: RCMP

Police say they had to untangle a web of lies following a crash in Salmon Arm last week.

The collision happened around 10 pm on Wednesday, Jan. 31, involving a semi and a passenger vehicle.

The driver of the semi called police to report a blue Jeep Compass had struck his commercial vehicle on Hwy 1 at Shuswap Street.

While the Jeep was still at the scene blocking traffic after suffering major front-end damage, the driver advised the RCMP that three occupants of the SUV had fled the scene on foot.

After an initial investigation, officers determined that the Jeep was travelling southbound on Shuswap Street when it ran a red light and hit the semi.

According to police, the mother of the registered Jeep owner called police around 30 minutes after the crash to report the vehicle as stolen.

She told officers that the SUV was parked outside her residence when it was stolen, and that she had called her son on his cell phone and he didn’t know where the Jeep was.

“Police advised that was unlikely as his phone was still in the vehicle and police were observing phone calls coming from ‘mom,’” explained an RCMP statement. “The mother then can clean about her lie, and was cautioned for criminal public mischief.”

After her lie was called out by police, the woman advised officers that her 22-year-old son was behind the wheel at the time of the crash and he was okay, but she didn’t know where he was.

The RCMP located him the next day and served him several violation tickets for failing to remain at the scene of an accident, failing to obey a red light, failing to display an ‘N’ and driving contrary to restrictions.