Head-on collision sends four to hospital

County woman airlifted with life-threatening injuries

Saturday, Dec 10, 2011 06:00 am | By Kevin Ma | St. Albert Gazette
APRIL BARTLETT
APRIL BARTLETT
A head-on collision between a car and a van along Villeneuve Road just east of Highway 44 early Friday afternoon sent one woman to hospital by STARS Air Ambulance with life threatening injuries. Another woman went to hospital with serious injuries and two children were sent for observation.
view all photos (-count-)

A Sturgeon County woman’s life hung in the balance Friday afternoon after a head-on collision just east of Villeneuve.

Morinville and St. Albert RCMP closed Highway 633 between Hogan Road and Highway 44 for several hours Friday afternoon after a van and a car smashed into each other head-on just east of Range Road 264.

Police got word of the accident at about 12:40 p.m., said Cst. Brandon DeBow, the officer on scene.

“It appears one vehicle just went into the other vehicle’s driving lane,” he said.

The crash completely caved in the front ends of both vehicles on the drivers’ sides. The car, a red Ford Contour, ended up in the south-side culvert just metres from a nearby home. The van, a red Pontiac, was still on the road.

Firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life to extract at least one driver from her vehicle, DeBow said. The driver of the van, a Sturgeon County woman in her late 30s, was taken by STARS Air Ambulance to the University of Alberta Hospital at about 2 p.m. with life-threatening injuries. The driver of the car, a woman in her 20s, was taken by ambulance to the Royal Alexandra Hospital with serious injuries.

Two children were also in the van, DeBow noted. They were taken to the University of Alberta Hospital for observation. Police re-opened the highway at about 3:30 p.m.

Police were still investigating the crash as of press time and had yet to lay any charges, DeBow said. Investigators had yet to determine which direction each vehicle was headed, but believe they collided head-on. Speed, weather, and alcohol did not appear to be factors in the collision.

The Gazette observed that the road was free of ice and visual obstructions as of Friday afternoon. The speed limit at the location of the crash is 100 kilometres an hour.


Comments


NOTE: To post a comment in the new commenting system you must have an account with at least one of the following services: Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, OpenID. You may then login using your account credentials for that service. If you do not already have an account you may register a new profile with Disqus by first clicking the "Post as" button and then the link: "Don't have one? Register a new profile".

The St. Albert Gazette welcomes your opinions and comments. We do not allow personal attacks, offensive language or unsubstantiated allegations. We reserve the right to delete comments deemed inappropriate. We reserve the right to close the comments thread for stories that are deemed especially sensitive. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.

blog comments powered by Disqus
Story URL:

Copyright © 2010 Great West Newspapers Limited Partnership. All rights reserved. The contents of this website are protected by copyright and may be used only for your personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial use is prohibited. To make use of any of this material you must first obtain permission of the owner of the copyright. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.
Â