What the RCMP called a “horrific” motor vehicle collision on Highway 63 last Friday has claimed seven lives and left two injured survivors, one of them a three-year-old boy.
On Friday afternoon around 1 p.m., members of the Boyle RCMP and Wood Buffalo RCMP detachments, along with other emergency crews, rushed to the scene of a head-on collision between two pick-up trucks on Highway 63 at kilometre marker 88.
Though the investigation into the crash continues, preliminary reports indicated that a northbound pick-up truck, carrying three occupants, pulled out to pass another vehicle, and then collided with a southbound pick-up truck that was carrying six occupants. The impact of the collision resulted in a significant fire.
Two of the deceased were in the northbound truck with an injured girl, who was pulled from the burning truck by passersby before emergency crews arrived. She later succumbed to her injuries. Police have been unable to identify the pair in the truck due to the severity of the crash.
Four of the six occupants of the southbound truck were also killed in the crash. Though the RCMP will not release their names, they have been identified in the media as a family from Fort McMurray. A family ministries pastor, Rev. Shannon Wheaton, his wife Trena Thompson-Wheaton, their sons Timothy, 3 and Benjamin, 2, and family friends Mark and Courtney Penny were all traveling in the vehicle. All but Timothy and Mark were killed in the crash. The three-year-old was transported to Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital where his condition has improved. Mark, 28, has been reported to be in serious but stable condition.
The highway was shut down during the investigation of the crash, and traffic was re-routed to Secondary Highway 881.
“Several brave civilian individuals, with little regard for their own personal safety, assisted on scene by attempting to help victims and extinguish the flames,” an RCMP press release said.
“The RCMP, and its partners, wish to extend a thank you to those members of the public for their heroism and assistance.”
