Constable Michelle Hall has been with the Clearwater RCMP detachment working Highway Patrol along Highway 5 from Barriere to Blue River and covering the stretch on Highway 24 from Little Fort to Lac Des Roches for the past 19 years.
“I’ve been an RCMP for almost 31 years now and before that I did three years in Sechelt as an Auxiliary RCMP training auxiliary members. Being in the RCMP has been so much a part of my life,” said Const. Hall in a recent interview with Black Press.
Constable Hall has also been part of a long standing provincial South East District Tactical Team (SED Tact) on top of her duties with BCHP, which requires specific training and qualifications.
“I’ve spent 20 years on SED Tactical Team as a Medic, Obstruction Removal Team (ORT) member - dealing with persons who would lock or cement themselves to objects to block locations or fences. Just an overall ‘jack of all trades’ and fixer of equipment. Lots of fun and long hours.”
In support of the local Clearwater detachment, Const. Hall intends to stay active as a reservist during retirement, “I’ll work six days of the month to keep my hand in and help out. If I work two days of the four days that the other members are off shift it helps with more coverage time on the highway. We are shorthanded up here.”
Const. Hall describes her years in BCHP, saying, “I enjoyed doing the traffic job, but admit I was ticked off about people’s attitudes at times. It seems to me that attitudes and driving abilities have deteriorated drastically. I stop commercial, Class 1 drivers more now that have never driven in snow. There’s nothing in the Motor Vehicle Act for B.C. that requires a driver to have something like a mountain endorsement for winter driving or anything, or even driving in the mountains. Driving on a two-lane highway in the mountains is a helluva lot different than driving the highway down in the lower mainland. Dash-cams would be wonderful.”
Constable Hall feels that with so many other options for online training now, there should be an opportunity for commercial drivers to take an online program that somewhat prepares them for how to drive narrow roadways in the wintertime, like those in the North Thompson that have sharp corners, deep hillsides, and fewer passing lanes with less than adequate pull outs.
“The reality is, there are so many programs offered online for a driver’s course. Why can’t we do that with commercial drivers? I sent letters locally, to the Ministry of Transportation, B.C. Trucking Association, the coroners service. I did that on Feb 28. I said what we are doing is not working. The next day we had a triple fatal. It’s unreal. People think you are out there just giving tickets and making money for the government, but we are also trying to educate people too. For us, as officers, we never know what we are stopping. It can be a traffic stop but really there’s no such thing as it being ‘just a traffic stop’. You must be prepared for anything.”
Const. Hall commends the increased enforcement when it’s available, saying, “That was great to see CVSE working up here, but they can’t keep it up. They are short-handed too.”
She continues her observation, “This highway has not had any real improvements in a long time. All they’ve done is repaved and if anything, they’ve made the shoulders narrower by sloping them off, so they drain better in the winter. When we pull a vehicle over, we can only pull them over so far and we are going to be blocking the road some. We need additional pull-offs. I thought perhaps when they brought pipeline through they could’ve made some roughed out pull-offs. That would’ve been great. The pullouts we have now are still being used for pipeline, so people regard them as a work zone. There’s nothing for southbound.”
When asked what her personal retirement plans are, she describes a lifestyle of staying busy in a variety of ways, “I like carving. I like hobby stuff. Getting more things growing around my property. I have a glass kiln and a C-Can that I have to get power to and create a little workshop for me to play around in. I like doing stuff like that. I have a small acreage and a dog that looks like a small bear, as well as an Icelandic horse, a small one, I didn’t want to fall that far,” she says laughing.
“I’m invested in Clearwater after so many years here. I love it and the people because people in Clearwater are ready and will help. It’s home.”
