A teenage girl from Rocky Mountain House died in a collision on the main thoroughfare through the western Alberta town Monday morning.
She’s one of several people killed on Alberta roads in recent days.
Alberta RCMP said the two-vehicle crash happened at 8:37 a.m. on Highway 11, north of 71 Street, at the north end of town.
They said it appears the teenage driver lost control of the vehicle on the highway and was hit by an oncoming vehicle.
The sole occupant, a 16-year-old girl from Rocky Mountain House, died on scene.
The driver of the other vehicle, a 37-year-old man, was not physically injured. RCMP said he remained on scene.
An RCMP traffic analyst was called to the scene and the cause is still under investigation.
The highway was closed for a few hours but the town said it reopened in the early afternoon.
The crash happened on the same day a school bus with students from Airdrie on a field trip to Olds lost control north of Calgary on Highway 2A. Five students and an adult were taken to hospital.
Monday saw the first snowfall of the season leave a blanket of snow across most of Alberta, prompting several warnings from RCMP across the province about poor road conditions.
Several fatal collisions across Alberta
Even before that, it was a deadly weekend on Alberta roads. RCMP said there were four separate incidents in Alberta over the weekend that claimed the lives of seven people.
One of the crashes last Friday morning on the QEII near Red Deer claimed the life of a 93-year-old man from Sundre and a 78-year-old man from Rocky Mountain House. A 70-year-old woman from Sundre was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition.
RCMP said in that crash, it appears one of the vehicles was pulled over on the side of the road and, “when trying to reintegrate the travelling lane, collided with a vehicle heading in the same direction.”
Also last Friday, a triple-fatal collision occurred near Brooks between a sedan and a pickup truck on Highway 1 near Township Road 164.
A sedan and a pickup truck collided at around 4:40 p.m., killing three people and injuring six more.
EMS pronounced the three occupants of the sedan, a 37-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman who were residents of Medicine Hat and a 33-year-old man who lived in Redcliff, dead at the scene.
Speeding is believed to be a factor in the Brooks crash.
On Saturday, a 24-year-old from Winnipeg was hit and killed by a vehicle as he was placing cones around a semi-truck that had broken down on the side of Highway 2 near Wetaskiwin.
On Sunday, a woman died in a two-vehicle crash 28 kilometers south of Slave Lake.
A pick-up truck headed north on Highway 2 crossed into the other lane, colliding head-on with a southbound pick-up truck, RCMP said. The 64-year-old woman driving the northbound pickup, a resident of High Level, died on scene.
The woman driving the other truck was brought to an Edmonton hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
The cause of the Slave Lake crash is still under investigation but alcohol and drugs do not appear to be factors, RCMP said.
RCMP are, however, urging drivers to use caution as winter conditions can suddenly appear this time of year on roadways, sometimes without warning.
“Some drivers are unprepared for the annual transition from the dry pavement of summer to winter driving conditions that can include snow and slush covered highways, black ice and blizzards,” said Const. Cheri-Lee Smith with Leduc RCMP.
“This first snowfall is a reminder and an opportunity to get prepared for winter driving, which means preparing our vehicles and adjusting our driving.”
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