Witnesses to multi-vehicle Highway 63 crash hailed as heroes

EDMONTON – If it weren’t for the quick-thinking actions of several Good Samaritans, RCMP believe the outcome of a multi-vehicle crash on one of Alberta’s most dangerous highways could have been “much, much worse.”

The fiery crash happened around 7:30 Monday evening on Highway 63, at an intersection north of Boyle. Investigators say the driver of a southbound semi was forced to heavily apply his brakes for unknown reasons, causing them to lock up. His empty tanker trailers then jackknifed into oncoming traffic, striking two northbound vehicles.

The driver of the first vehicle that was hit was injured, but it was the second vehicle, an SUV carrying four people, that took the brunt of the impact.

Maurice Poirier, who has been working on twinning the stretch of highway, was waiting to turn when he witnessed the collision and ran to help. He says the parents in the vehicle got out on their own, but he noticed the young man in the back was still strapped in.

“He couldn’t get out of his seat belt so I cut the seat belt to get him out. And by that time, the car ignited in flames,” Poirier recalls.

He then had to battle the smoke to get the young woman out, who was unconscious. Marc Overacker, who was trying to put out the flames with two fire extinguishers from his truck, helped Poirier cut the woman out of her seat belt. Together, the two men pull her from the vehicle.

They then helped the truck driver out of his cabin. Next, the focus shifted to moving the burning vehicle away from the truck, which was leaking diesel fuel.

“There was a passerby who went and took a…trackhoe from the construction site and pulled the car away from the tractor trailor unit, and doused it with dirt and sand to put the remaining fire out,” Overacker says. “I don’t even think he was part of the construction crew…he just jumped in.”

Cpl. John Spaans with the Boyle RCMP explains that the location of the crash on Highway 63, 18km north of Atmore, was somewhat remote and not readily accessible by emergency services. He thinks the joint efforts – of what is believed to have been up to a dozen people who stepped in to help – were potentially life-saving.

“With having so many people involved, immediately following the collision rendering assistance, first aid to the injured people, it allowed emergency services enough time to get up there to give proper care,” he says. “Had these people not stepped up and administered initial first aid, who knows what the prognosis would’ve been.”

Both Overacker and Poirier say they just did what they had to do.

“Everything was pretty much a blur,” Overacker says. “That first aid training kicks in. You take first aid, and you think ‘man, I’m never going to use first aid,’ but it all comes back to you…You just jump into action, and do what you hope somebody else will do if you’re in the same situation.”

“We have to help each other,” adds Poirier. “If I wouldn’t have done nothin’, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. So I had to do something. And if something would’ve happened to me meanwhile, I don’t care. I tried…I’m just glad I was there.”

The 21-year-old woman who was pulled out of the burning vehicle, along with her 48-year-old father and the 19-year-old were all airlifted to Edmonton hospitals, where RCMP say they remain in serious condition. The 21-year-old’s condition is the most serious. The mother and other two drivers have since been released from area hospitals.

On Tuesday, the provincial government provided an update on the twinning of the notoriously dangerous Highway 63. Work on another 32-kilometre stretch of it, between House River and south of Mariana Lake, will start by the beginning of September. The entire twinning project is scheduled to be completed by fall of 2016.

Follow @TrishKozicka

With files from Fletcher Kent, Global News