Viral video shows dramatic high-speed crash on Deerfoot Trail

CALGARY – A YouTube video showing a high-speed crash on Deerfoot Trail has gone viral.

The footage, posted by user Nan Xu, shows several vehicles travelling southbound on Deerfoot Trail. As the vehicles approach Memorial Drive, one travelling in the left-hand lane appears to lose control and spin out.

The vehicle careens across the busy roadway, colliding head on with a large truck. The truck then cuts across the left-hand lanes and collides with a minivan on the left shoulder.

A timestamp on the footage, which appears to be from a dashcam, suggests the collision happened at 12:47 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016.

WATCH: A viral video shot in Calgary shows the kind of footage a dashcam can catch, but how helpful are they to police and insurance companies? Paul Haysom reports.

1:21 How helpful are dashcams?

Calgary EMS and the Calgary Police Service both confirm they did respond to a collision at southbound Deerfoot Trail and Memorial Drive, but said it was at 11:50 a.m.

EMS said the description of the vehicles they had on record for the 11:50 a.m. crash was consistent with the vehicles seen in the video.

Two people were taken to hospital in stable condition with minor injuries.

Since being posted to YouTube on Wednesday, the video has gained over 63,000 views.

Calgary Police Staff Sargeant Paul Stacey said police use dashcam videos in collision investigations all the time.

He said they also reference photo radar or red light cameras, as well as security footage from buildings.

“Any time that there is video evidence showing the crash that can supplement what the witnesses have seen, that’s excellent evidence for us to use,” Stacey said. “It helps us figure out exactly what happened and who might be at fault.”

Stacey said it is not uncommon for people to submit dashcam video to them and request that actions be taken against drivers based on what the video shows.

Ross Bucsis from Palliser Insurance said insurance companies also reference video evidence to help support positions of claim. They come into play in situations where fault is being disputed.

“When one party says, ‘I didn’t do it’, the other party says ‘yes you did’, we now have real-life, real-time evidence of exactly what happened.”

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With files from Tony Tighe and Jodi Hughes