Canmore RCMP say an impaired Calgary driver crashed into several vehicles along the Trans-Canada Highway, injuring 14 people on Sunday.
It happened at around 1:30 p.m. on the westbound lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway near Highway 1A in Canmore, west of Calgary.
RCMp Cpl. Troy Savinkoff tells 660 NewsRadio that the male driver lost control of his vehicle and went through the centre median and into oncoming traffic.
“Traffic was quite heavy at the time, so it caused multiple vehicles to collide,” he said.
That’s where the driver collided with several other vehicles–two trucks and two SUVs–leaving 14 people injured. Two of them were sent to hospital in critical condition.
Savinkoff says police arrested the driver, a man in his 50s, and impaired driving charges are pending. Additionally, he says the man cooperated with Mounties.
The crash led to significant delays for those going westbound. RCMP were on site investigating for several hours before reopening lanes at around 9 p.m.
Savinkoff says about 250 Albertans lose their lives each year on the roads they police, of those, 30 per cent involve impaired drivers.
“Impaired driving is the number one cause of criminal deaths in Canada, and to put that in perspective, that means more people are killed by drunk drivers than are murdered in this country,” he explained.
“There’s no place for it in our society, and if people would not drink and drive, we would immediately save … many people within this province in our same jurisdiction … it’s very preventable, and each one of these people are people with families.”
He says more details will be provided once charges have been laid.
With files from Nadia Moharib