WATCH: 100 vehicles in pile-up crash in bad weather

Police in Alberta, Canada are still working out exactly what happened to spark a massive crash on one of their major highways, the QE2 near Highway 13 – it’s believed it all started after a man got out of his car, after a crash.

It was one of the biggest traffic pileups in Alberta’s history, and it closed the province’s busiest highway for several hours – a number of the more than 100 vehicles involved in the crash could be found Friday in impound lots in Leduc and Wetaskiwin.

In the end, traffic authorities the RCMP, said between 85 and 100 vehicles were involved in the main collision, but it’s estimated numerous other vehicles were involved in a number of other crashes outside of the immediate scene.

Police said on Friday that despite the sheer number of vehicles involved, Thursday’s crash was not the largest in the province’s history – the largest took place two years ago in Olds with 86 vehicles involved. RCMP said the QE2 pileup, with about 100 vehicles involved, didn’t count because those vehicles were spread over a 15-kilometre stretch – and only about 45 vehicles were involved in what police consider to be the main collision.

A day later, police were still going through the task of working out the exact chain of events that lead to the pileup. “This is a hugely challenging job trying to determine how everything happened, when it happened and which vehicles were involved,” RCMP Cpl. Colette Zazulak said.

As a result of the crash on Thursday, more than 100 people suffered various injuries – one man was found underneath a semi in the wreckage, and was rushed to the ICU of a hospital in critical condition.

Police said that man was stable condition Friday. The collision caused Alberta Health Services to declare a code orange for the U of A hospital. “We initiate a plan when we know we have a large number of patients coming into our hospitals,” AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson said. Police closed the highway in both directions for about 12 hours, while police and tow trucks worked to clear the vehicles off of the road. Officers from a number of RCMP detachments and the Edmonton Police Service were on the scene to help out.

While this may not be expected to happen in our region of Southern Africa, it is still of importance that our truckers know of the severity of crashes that occur in such bad weather conditions.

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