A five-year-old boy and a man in his 30s died in a car collision 15 kilometres east of Taber, Alta Saturday evening.
Emergency crews said it appeared as if the car, a Chrysler Pacifica, was trying to make a left-hand turn when it was struck from behind by a Ford F-150 truck on Highway 3. It happened at around 7 p.m.
“I saw a car standing still in the middle of the road, waiting to turn left,” one of the first witnesses on the scene, Jorge Morales, said. “And then I saw another car coming from behind and just hitting it.”
Both victims were from Coaldale, Alta. They were passengers in the car and died on scene.
Morales said the first people on scene tried to open the door to free the female driver.
“I tried to break the glass but I wasn’t able to. By the time I had gone to my car, got my phone and started calling 911, some other people gathered and someone managed to break the window with a piece of metal or something like that.”
The Palliser School Division confirmed the five-year-old boy attended John Davidson School. According to it’s website, John Davidson is an alternative school for Low German-speaking Mennonite children. The district has offered counseling for students.
A three-year-old boy was also airlifted by STARS to hospital in potentially life-threatening condition. RCMP said Monday his condition is non-life threatening. The driver of the car, a woman in her mid-20s, was taken to hospital in stable condition.
Two people were in the truck involved in the crash. A woman passenger was taken to hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The male driver was not injured.
“He (the truck driver) must have been going pretty fast because I didn’t hear any screeching of brakes or nothing,” Morales said. “I just heard the big crash, a car was spinning and the other one went towards the field.”
RCMP said weather, road conditions and alcohol were not factors in the crash. The investigation is on-going and charges are pending.
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