A child and a 25-year-old man from Fort Nelson died in treacherously slippery road conditions on the weekend.
A Dodge Durango collided head-on with a tractor trailer, instantly killing the pickup’s two occupants, Neven William MacDonald, 25, and Dominique Michael Roberts, five, both of Fort Nelson.
The tractor trailer driver was uninjured, but was taken to hospital for precautionary reasons.
The accident was one of several on the BC portion of the Alaska Highway, which was exceptionally icy.
On Saturday, at 5:25 a.m., RCMP was notified a Greyhound bus had lost control on the ice and slid onto its side near Prophet River, BC.
The bus had left Whitehorse 16 hours earlier, at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.
The accident occurred 120 kilometres from the nearest police, fire and ambulance detachments at Fort Nelson.
Emergency crews had to brave icy conditions in a hazardous two-hour drive to the rollover.
“The maximum they could drive was 70 kilometres an hour,” said Const. Craig Douglass, the RCMP North District media liaison.
Almost immediately after the accident, bus passengers were aided and kept warm by passing motorists until emergency crews could arrive.
One passenger became trapped between seats and had to be freed by firefighters.
Of the bus’ 18 passengers, two were deemed “critically injured” and transported by helicopter, along with the trapped individual, to the Fort Nelson Hospital.
Ultimately, one passenger’s complaints of chest pains was the most serious injury, said Douglass.
The remaining passengers were transported on another Greyhound bus to Fort Nelson where they were checked out by medical personnel.
While returning from the scene of the bus rollover, an RCMP officer came upon the fatal truck collision about 25 kilometres south of Prophet River.
“The road conditions were terrible, on the other end of (the highway), down near Fort St. John; there was also a number of accidents including three semi trailers that went off in the same area.
“And a diesel spill,” added Douglass.
“That whole stretch of highway was terrible.”
Contact Tristin Hopper at
tristinh@yukon-news.com