EDMONTON – Two women were killed and two people injured after a pickup truck slammed into a Honda sedan on the west edge of town Monday.
Police say the two women were driving east on the Yellowhead when they veered toward the turnoff for Winterburn Road.
"It appears as if the Civic started to take the off ramp," said Edmonton Police Service Insp. Chris Epler. "The driver apparently changed her mind and pulled back into eastbound traffic."
As it turned toward the road, the car was struck on the driver’s side by a Chevy truck travelling in the same direction. The force of the collision drove the vehicles off the road and into the grass median separating the eastbound and westbound lanes.
The two women in the car died at the scene, Epler said. The two people in the truck were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Stephen Campbell and his wife were a few cars behind the pickup when the crash occurred.
At first all they could see was the truck skidding off the road, Campbell said. "We thought maybe the driver had fallen asleep."
As they pulled alongside the wreckage, the car became visible. Its left side was folded into the bumper of the truck and its windshield smashed.
"I went down into the ditch and I knew it was a serious accident," Campbell said.
A group of off-duty firefighters were driving by and took control of the scene. They phoned police and an ambulance arrived within minutes, Campbell said.
Emergency workers pulled the two women from the car and called in a STARS helicopter. But the women were already dead and the helicopter flew back to base without patients.
The crash forced police to close the Yellowhead from east of 215th Street to west of 231st Street for several hours Monday evening.
Investigators were spread across the road just after 6 p.m. as other officers worked to detour traffic around the accident site.
Epler said it was too soon to know what caused the crash or whether charges will be laid.
rwarnica@thejournal.canwest.com
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