RCMP have confirmed one person died in a crash on the highway near Hinton on Tuesday evening.
A semi-truck and a trailer was headed north when the trailer fishtailed, and the truck hit a pickup headed south. The pickup ended up in a ditch but the larger truck remained on the highway.
Then, a third vehicle hit the debris from the first collision and other vehicles ended up in the ditch.
On Wednesday morning, RCMP confirmed the driver of the pickup truck, a 44 year old man, had died at the scene. His passenger, also a male, was taken to hospital in Edmonton.
The driver of the semi-truck, a 37-year-old man, was taken to hospital in Hinton.
No other injuries were reported.
At the time of the crash, police said fog was reported in the area, along with freezing rain, and the road surface was coated in ice.
Police remained on the scene overnight to investigate and manage traffic, it’s expected the highway will remain at one lane through the day as members of the Alberta Environment & Parks Emergency Response Team will assess a spill.
RCMP said road conditions have improved, but are still not ideal, and warned drivers to be cautious.
Alberta Environment and Parks told CTV Edmonton two saddle tanks were ruptured during the collision, and spilled between 200 and 300 litres of diesel into a nearby ditch. The product could be seen approximately 100 metres away from a stream.
According to Environment and Parks, Hinton Fire Department placed absorbent pads, pillows and booms in the ditch, and constructed a dike immediately downstream of the incident site as a collection point for the diesel. Absorbent pads were used to clean the product from the roadway.
Alberta Support and Emergency Response Team was onsite and performed an initial assessment.
