Two Calgary residents were killed in a collision on the QEII Highway near Innisfail, Alta. early Thursday morning.
RCMP said a semi-truck ended up in the ditch after crossing over the median on the QEII.
A woman driving an SUV pulled over to check on the driver of the semi.
The two people were standing outside the vehicle, when another semi-truck ran into the debris from the first collision and went into the ditch, striking both people.
“A southbound semi tractor-trailer unit came in contact with a Good Samaritan who had stopped and was outside speaking with the driver of the first semi,” RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk said. “The southbound semi collided with those two.”
Both individuals were pronounced deceased on scene.
The Good Samaritan who stopped to help has been identified as 50-year-old Heather McAsey Anderson.
Her brother, Calgary firefighter Brian McAsey, said she’d just driven his niece to Edmonton and was heading home.
The semi-truck driver was a 36-year-old Calgary man.
The southbound lanes of the QEII were closed for several hours, before reopening later Thursday morning.
RCMP said neither speed, alcohol nor road conditions are considered factors in the fatal crash.
“Although the investigation is ongoing, there’s no charges pending,” Matechuk said.
The crash comes just over a year after PC MLA Manmeet Bhullar was killed while stopping to help a stranded driver on the same stretch of highway.
Bhullar died after he was struck by a semi while trying to help at the scene of a rollover on the QEII north of Red Deer, near the Blindman River Hill.
READ MORE: Alberta PC MLA Manmeet Bhullar killed in highway crash
RCMP say they don’t want to discourage people from stopping to help, but warn them to do so safely.
“Please travel away from the collision itself, call the police if the police aren’t on scene and render any assistance from a distance away,” Matechuk said.
With files from Erika Tucker, Caley Ramsay, Global News.
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