3 seriously hurt in crash after van careens off Memorial Drive onto Deerfoot Trail
The crash on Deerfoot Trail northbound near Memorial Drive happened around 9 a.m., according to the Calgary Police Service.
Multiple EMS units, firefighters and police responded to the collision in a construction zone on the freeway.
Involved in the crash appeared to be a white car carrying two people, and a white Ford Econoline transport van that was crashed on the other side of a concrete barricade between the two directions of traffic.
The cause of the crash is not known, but police said their early investigation suggests the transport van launched itself from one roadway to the other.
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'I'm concerned to see that there's a path of travel that exits Memorial Drive on the westbound lanes, goes onto the green space and basically launches off the top of the green space onto Deerfoot itself,' said Sgt. Colin Foster with the CPS collision reconstruction team, who said as bad as it was, the carnage could have been worse.
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'We're very lucky that it's only really the two main vehicles that were involved, that there weren't more vehicles involved. Deerfoot is a busy roadway, especially in the construction area.
'The fact that there's only two vehicles involved is a saving grace, to be honest.'
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Police said the driver of the van was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition, but was later upgraded to serious but stable condition.
The two people from the car involved suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Both were seen by Global News crews being able to step out of the heavily damaged car before being laid on stretchers and taken to hospital.
Northbound Deerfoot Trail was closed between 17 Ave Southeast and Memorial Drive Northeast; Westbound Memorial Drive was closed from Barlow Trail Northeast to 12 Street Northeast.
As of publishing, police said the road closures were still in effect as traffic officers investigated.
Police are looking for dashcam footage of the crash and want to speak with any other drivers who may have seen what happened.
— with files from Michael King, Global News
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