BARRHEAD — A 47-year-old Red Deer woman was pronounced deceased on the scene and two other people were badly injured in a two-vehicle collision that occurred along Highway 763 near Tiger Lily on June 5.
Sgt. Bob Dodds of the Barrhead RCMP stated they received a call at about 1:55 p.m. about the collision between a northbound vehicle being driven by an 89-year-old Fort Assiniboine resident and a southbound vehicle driven by the Red Deer woman, who was accompanied by her 21-year-old son.
Dodds said firefighters had to work to extricate the male passenger of the southbound vehicle before calling in STARS Air Ambulance to transport the 21-year-old to Edmonton.
He said the driver of the other vehicle was transported by ground ambulance initially to the Barrhead Healthcare Centre, but he was moved almost immediately to Edmonton as well.
Dodds said they had a collision reconstructionist attend the scene to perform an investigation, the results of which are pending.
“As far as a determination of what caused the collision, we haven't got there yet,” he said.
“On its face, we’ve got two vehicles — one northbound, one southbound — that collided head on, and that’s about all we know at this stage.”
Dodds noted that road characteristics such as poor visibility from smoke were not a factor, and they have no reason to believe there was any criminal liability involved such as one driver being impaired.
“Hopefully we can make a determination once the collision reconstructionist is finished her job and then take it from there,” he said.
The collision resulted in the closure of Highway 763 for several hours. A BARCC (Barrhead & Area Regional Crime Coalition) alert was sent out just after 7 p.m. indicating that the highway had been re-opened.
