After snow fell in a number of areas in Alberta on Tuesday and Wednesday, the RCMP issued a warning to drivers on Wednesday morning about less-than-ideal road conditions leading to multiple crashes.
“Road conditions are poor across the province,” the RCMP said in a news release issued at 7:14 a.m.
Mounties said ice- and snow-covered roads were leading to issues in a number of areas.
“Reports were coming in from pretty much all over the province, be it the Westlock area, Parkland, Strathcona, Devon,” said Cpl. Mathew Howell, public information officer with the Alberta RCMP.
“Essentially all across the province the roads were getting slippery and people just weren’t expecting it, I guess, because they weren’t driving to the conditions of the road or they hit a patch of ice they didn’t expect. Unfortunately, it caused a lot of chaos on the roads.”
Among the areas police warned were slippery were Highway 44 and Highway 37 near Westlock.
Shortly after 9 a.m., the RCMP in Strathcona County warned that the westbound lanes of Highway 16 were “blocked” near Range Road 212 because of a semi-truck rollover.
“That portion of the highway will be closed while the area gets cleared up,” police said. “It is expected to be closed for several hours.
“No major injuries have been reported.”
In an update just before 11 a.m., RCMP said Highway 16 had reopened to traffic.
Shortly before 8:30 a.m., Airdrie RCMP said emergency crews north of Calgary were responding to “a series of collisions” on Highway 2.
“The northbound lanes of Highway 2 at Highway 72 have been closed,” police said. “These investigations are in their early stages. There will be a further release once the highway is reopened.”
Earlier in the morning, the RCMP warned that road conditions were icy on Highway 2 between Innisfail and Bowden.
“The roads are covered in ice and snow, resulting in multiple collisions and vehicles driving off the road,” the RCMP said. “No injuries have been reported so far.”
511 Alberta reported that the southbound lanes of QEII were closed near Township Road 490 in the Leduc area at 5:30 a.m. because of a jack-knifed semi-truck. Vehicles were being detoured via Highway 2A.
“Anytime things like this happen, it is a strain on resources,” Howell said. “It’s a lot of members going out and also calling in our different partners, be it the city ones or be it the Sheriffs … just to help out with traffic, make sure no other collisions happen, making sure things get cleaned up as fast as possible.”
In Edmonton, many roads were also poor for driving conditions on Wednesday morning.
Just before 6:30 a.m., the Edmonton Police Service issued a news release warning that three lanes of southbound Calgary Trail near Ellerslie Road were closed as emergency crews responded to a semi-truck rollover.
No injuries were reported in the crash either.
By the afternoon, Howell said the road conditions had improved, but still warned drivers to drive to the conditions.
“The roads are still a bit slippery, they’re still wet. And because of the amount of collisions, the amount of vehicles that were driven off the road, there is still a lot of cleaning up happening,” he said.
“In Alberta, winter is over when it decides it wants to be over. It will not follow any calendar we put on it, any schedule we put on it.”
— with files from Caley Gibson, Global News.