Police locate, ticket woman who struck vet clinic with vehicle

By JEREMY APPEL on May 16, 2019.

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A car that crashed into Cypress View Veterinary Clinic on Monday, May 13, 2019 left some interior damage. Police located the driver responsible the next day, writing her a ticket for failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

Medicine Hat police have located a woman who crashed her car into the front of Cypress View Veterinary Clinic on Monday.

Acting Traffic Sgt. Darren Holeha told the News the driver was served with a ticket the next day for failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

“When you have an accident, you have a due diligence to either contact the owner of the building or vehicle, or leave a note in a conspicuous place notifying them that their building or vehicle was in an accident,” said Holeha. “That wasn’t done, so it was just a straight Traffic Safety offence.”

There’s no suspicion that drugs or alcohol was a factor in the collision, he added.

Tammy Duggan, Cypress View’s director of administration, says the damage done by the vehicle wasn’t noticed until the end of the day Monday.

“When the staff left to go home that evening, they thought the outside of the building looked a little different,” Duggan explained.

The employees then went into a room on the other side of the wall and saw it was significantly damaged.

“We didn’t hear it because it was very busy late in the afternoon when it probably happened,” Duggan said, adding that there was someone working in the room until 4:30 p.m., so the collision must have happened between then and closing time.

This isn’t the first time a vehicle has driven into the clinic.

In 2012, there was a much more severe collision, where Duggan says “the vehicle came right inside the building.”

There’s still significant damage this time around, which Cypress View’s insurers have examined, but have yet to attach a dollar amount to it.

Duggan struck a conciliatory note with regards to the errant driver.

“Accidents happen,” she said. “I’m sure she had other things on her mind. When you come to the vet clinic, obviously you have something going on — like a sick pet — although it is unfortunate because it would’ve been nice to know who caused the damage. What more could we do about it?”