A 20-year-old St. Albert man is dead while another man is in hospital following a two-car collision on the city’s south side on Saturday night.
RCMP responded to the collision at roughly 8:20 p.m. at the intersection of St. Albert Trail and Hebert Road. A southbound SUV making a left turn onto Hebert Road collided with a northbound car. The car came to rest after the passenger side made contact with a lamppost.
“We don’t know who struck who yet,” said St. Albert RCMP Const. Janice Schoepp. “All we can say is we know they collided.”
The passenger of the car was pronounced dead at the scene. His name has not been released, but a handwritten note attached to the lamppost this week identifies him as Mike Mclean.
The 26-year-old driver, who is not from St. Albert, was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Schoepp said.
No injuries were reported by occupants of the SUV. Schoepp could not confirm how many occupants were in the SUV, but said it was more than one.
The collision is still under investigation. Schoepp said police have gathered witness statements and a traffic analyst was on scene until Monday afternoon compiling a report.
Speed and alcohol have not been ruled out as factors in the collision.
Social media reports stated that arrests were made at the scene of the collision. Schoepp could not comment specifically, adding no charges have been laid.
“I know in some instances arrests are made without charges being laid,” she said.
This is St. Albert’s second traffic fatality of 2013.
Brian Hartman, manager of engineering with the City of St. Albert, said the intersection at St. Albert Trail and Hebert Road ranks in the city’s top five intersections for collision severity.
Statistics presented to council in late November reported that intersection had the highest number of injury collisions in 2011, with 11. Statistics from 2006 to 2011 show a total of 58 injury collisions at that intersection, putting it in second place behind St. Albert Trail and Giroux Road with 61 injury collisions in the five-year span.
“If you look in comparison to the number of vehicles going through in terms of other intersections in the region, it’s actually still quite safe,” Hartman said, adding roughly 60,000 commuters use St. Albert Trail on a daily basis.
Several residents have expressed interest in equipping that intersection with a protected left turn, which allows drivers to turn left only when given an advanced turning signal. This process is currently in place at the intersection of St. Albert Trail and McKenney Avenue.
“Those kind of timing changes are an alternative and we’ll continue to look at those,” Hartman said, adding implementing a protected left turn would cause a delay in traffic movement, especially during rush hour.
