Three from B.C. killed on Alberta highways

Gravel truck hits Nanaimo couple’s car

Three people from B.C. are dead after two separate crashes in Alberta in the past two days.

A 65-year-old man and a 63-year-old woman died on Tuesday morning after their car hit a gravel truck that had turned into their path.

RCMP say the crash happened in the intersection of Highway 13 and 47 Street in Wetawskiwin, when a gravel truck and trailer heading west turned left into the path of a Chrysler Intrepid going east.

RCMP say the male driver of the car unsuccessfully tried to avoid the collision and the vehicles collided, causing “extreme damage” to the couple’s car.

The Jaws of Life were used at the scene, but both people died. RCMP say the couple was from Nanaimo, B.C.

The driver of the gravel truck was not physically injured, but RCMP say he was “extremely distraught” and was treated by EMS.

RCMP say neither alcohol, speed nor weather were factors.

A B.C. woman in her 70s is dead after a crash near Chip Lake on Tuesday.

The single-vehicle crash happened on Highway 16 near Range Road 105, about 130 kilometres west of Edmonton.

Evansburg RCMP Corp. Mark Polzer said the woman was driving north on Highway 16 just west of Wildwood when her vehicle left the road, hit an earth berm and came to rest upside down in a pool of water. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

A male passenger in his 40s was taken to hospital in Edmonton by STARS with undisclosed injuries.

Polzer said both were from the Lower Mainland of B.C. Their names have not been released.

RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Josee Valiquette said the cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

RCM Pare also investigating a fatal motorcycle crash that killed a man in his late 20s in northern Alberta last weekend.

RCMP say the victim was driving a motorcycle on Highway 697 near Range Road 15-1 near Fort Vermilion when he attempted to pass a pickup truck that was turning left and hit the truck. The driver, a 29-year-old man, died of his injuries. RCMP say neither drugs nor alcohol were factors in the crash.