Treacherous road conditions keep emergency crews busy

Three people were treated and released from the Barrhead Health Care Centre after receiving minor injuries when their vehicle slid off the road and rolled over into the ditch on Hwy. 18, near Range Road 20.

At about noon on Wednesday, Jan. 21 the Barrhead Fire Department was called out to a report of a single vehicle roll over.

Barrhead Fire Chief John Whittaker said the road conditions were very treacherous.

“It was really slick out there,” he said. “When we arrived on the scene our firefighters could barely stand on the road, it was sheer ice.”

Due to a light rain earlier in the morning, combined with the cold surface temperature, many areas, including roads and sidewalks were coated with a thin layer of ice.

On the way to the accident, Whittaker came upon a triaxle truck combination that had jackknifed and then slid into the ditch on Hwy. 18 near Range Road 25.

“On route to the scene I was talking to EMS who said they were already on scene and I said you can't be because I am looking at it right now,” he said, adding that it did not take long before the emergency crews knew there were two separate accidents.

Whittaker then split his crews into two, each responding to an accident.

“We were lucky at both accidents there were no real injuries and no extrications,” he said.

Because of the deep snow, the occupants in both accidents had to be helped out of their vehicles because they could not open their doors.

After arriving on the scene of any road accident, one of the first things Barrhead fire crews do is to protect the accident scene by using their fire trucks as a shield.

“Working on the side of the road is always inherently dangerous, but as soon as you add the horrible conditions we experienced yesterday it is that much worse,” he said.

Whittaker said the RCMP attended two more accidents, one about two miles south of Barrhead and another to the northwest, near Fort Assininboine.