Stony Plain RCMP are investigating the seventh fatal collision in our province in just one week, the latest - a single motor vehicle crash late Friday night that claimed the lives of two people.
It happened around 10:30 p.m. when a pick-up truck traveling westbound on Highway 16A took the northbound off-ramp for Highway 60, about 10 km west of Edmonton, and lost control.
"It appears the vehicle just left the on-ramp and rolled a number of times. Two occupants in the vehicle and they were both deceased at the scene," Sgt. Stan Andronyk of the Stony Plain RCMP.
On Saturday, RCMP confirmed that the two occupants were both 22 year-old men from Spruce Grove. Their names are not being released at the request of one of the families.
"Our initial investigation is showing that speed was likely a factor in the accident," says Cst. Barb Roy of the Spruce Grove/Stony Plain RCMP.
In the past week, 15 people have been killed in crashes on Alberta highways.
"As the weather improves, we get more and more people traveling on the highways and more and more people in a hurry to get places and not worrying about the weather; so they think that ideal conditions, they can go faster," says Cst. Roy.
She adds that the May long weekend is typically one of the busiest weekend the highways and is hoping motorists start taking their time on the highways.
"We're hoping that everybody is listening to this and seeing that it's continuing and continuing and that they decide to slow down, she says.
"If people don't take it upon themselves to follow the rules of the road - the rules are put there to help people stay safe on the roads,- and if they don't do that then we'll keep seeing these collisions."
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