Charges laid against man in fatal 11-vehicle pileup in 2019

More than six months after a pileup in southeast Alberta, which involved 11 vehicles and left three people dead, RCMP have laid charges against a Manitoba semitruck driver.

The crash happened on the afternoon of Aug. 20 along Highway 9 near Range Road 73 near Cereal, about 300 kilometres east of Calgary, and also injured 10 others, two critically.

A semi-tanker truck hauling fuel and another truck carrying butane engulfed the scene in flames, with crews fighting to extinguish the blaze into the evening.

Three semi-trucks as well as a number of trailers were involved in the crash, RCMP say.

RCMP Cpl. Deanna Fontaine said it took a long time to lay charges due to the complex nature of the collision. “This was a lengthy, complex investigation into a serious collision, a multi-fatality that involved numerous vehicles and numerous departments to investigation,” Fontaine said.

The response and investigation involved RCMP detachments in Coronation, Redcliff, Airdrie and Hanna.

The collision was one of two deadly collisions on a 16-kilometre stretch of Highway 9 last August.

Earlier in the month, 10-yearold Zachary Jeffreys died when a truck slammed into the back of his family’s idle SUV.

The crash also left the boy’s parents and two young siblings with serious injuries.

At the time, Alberta Transportation Minister Ric Mciver told Postmedia that twinning Highway 9 wasn’t on the government’s priority list but that the province would look into the project.

Daniel Zacharias Wollmann, 22, of Mitchell, Man., is charged with three counts of dangerous operation causing death and 14 counts of dangerous operation causing bodily harm in the Aug. 20 pileup.

Wollmann will next appear in court in Hanna on April 22.