Alberta woman, 61, dies in large highway pile-up west of Edmonton: RCMP

An Alberta woman is dead and multiple other people were sent to hospital, after at least a dozen vehicles piled up Friday morning on the Yellowhead Highway west of Edmonton.

The woman, 61, lived in Seba Beach, Alta., a summer village about 80 kilometres west of Edmonton. Five other people were sent to hospital for their injuries, one of whom is in critical condition, RCMP said in a news release.

A spring snowstorm had hit much of Alberta on Thursday, but lasted through Friday. Cst. Cory Riggs, an Alberta RCMP spokesperson, told CBC News Sunday that poor weather was a factor in the pile-up.

Shortly after 9 a.m. Friday, Parkland RCMP started getting reports about multiple collisions on Highway 16, near Highway 60 — an intersection just west of Edmonton city limits, north of Acheson.

Responding officers found at least 12 vehicles, including four semi-trailer trucks, had crashed at the scene, Riggs said. The release said westbound traffic narrowed to one lane.

In all, first responders tended to six people injured in the crashes. Police stayed on the scene for hours to clean up and investigate the collision, the release said.

The crash west of Edmonton marks the second fatal collision that RCMP reported Friday in the central Alberta area in which the snowstorm was a factor.

On Saturday, RCMP said weather was a factor in a two-vehicle crash near Killam, Alta., a town about 140 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, that killed a nine-year-old girl.

Four others in the same car as her were sent to hospital. As of Saturday, three of them were in critical condition.

The two people in the other car sustained minor injuries.