Provincial RCMP are confirming what many in the close-knit Lac La Biche community have already spent a day talking about - a small child is dead after a crash between an SUV and a utility vehicle yesterday afternoon.
Provincial RCMP are confirming what many in the close-knit Lac La Biche community have already spent a day talking about - a small child is dead after a crash between an SUV and a utility vehicle yesterday afternoon.
While brief in any description of the child, RCMP provincial spokesperson Sgt. Josee Valiquette told the POST a toddler’ s body was found in the wreckage of the SUV some time after the 2 p.m. collision on Hwy 55 approximately five kilometres west of Lac la Biche.Valiquette was not prepared to give the age or gender of the toddler.
The driver of the SUV, described only as a Lac La Biche-area woman in her 30s, was transferred to an Edmonton hospital for her injuries and a second toddler in the SUV was taken to the W. J. Cadzow Hospital in Lac La Biche for treatment.
Valiquette had no further details on the severity of injuries to the driver or child.
The driver of the utility service truck, also a local man, was said to have sustained no physical injuries.
RCMP say the SUV was westbound on 55. The utility truck was eastbound. The collision took place just west of the Hwy 663 intersection on a sweeping corner.
Valiquette said little more information would be released at this time as the matter remains under investigation.
“We are conducting an appropriate investigation,” she said.
The crash, which littered a 250-metre portion of the highway with debris, and left the vehicles several hundred feet from each other, closed down the roadway for several hours.
Valiquette was unable to say at this time if alcohol or speed were factors in the crash.
The POST will have more information on the crash as it becomes available.
