The Canadian Press
COCHRANE, Canada — A nasty spring snowstorm turned Alberta highways into ice rinks on Thursday, resulting in a myriad of crashes.
A collision between an ambulance and a snowplow was just one of 20 traffic accidents RCMP were dealing with on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Calgary.
Two paramedics and a patient in the ambulance were taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Two off-duty firefighters were first on the scene and managed to treat a male paramedic and a male patient, but the female paramedic who had been driving the ambulance had to be cut out of the vehicle.
Police said the two vehicles were driving in the same direction in blowing snow when the ambulance rear-ended the snowplow.
Meanwhile, RCMP responded to a chain-reaction crash east of Grande Prairie involving a Greyhound bus, multiple big trucks and a number of other vehicles.
There were no reports of injuries.
There also was a collision on Highway 16 near Vegreville and RCMP closed the westbound lanes and were rerouting traffic.
RCMP were advising motorists heading northwest of Edmonton to avoid Highways 43 from Whitecourt to DeBolt and Highway 49 from Valleyview to Donnelly due to blizzard conditions.
In all, about 15 centimetres of snow fell in the Edmonton region.
Copyright 2012 The Canadian Press
All Rights Reserved