Calgary

Slick wintry highway blamed for fiery crash

Wintry weather and icy road conditions are being blamed for a deadly crash on Highway 2 north of Calgary on Monday afternoon.

Calgary shivers through 4th day of snow plus wind chill

Wintry weather and icy road conditions are being blamed for a deadly crash on Highway 2 north of Calgary on Monday afternoon.

A northbound semi with two flat-deck trailers crossed the median and entered the southbound lanes, smashing into a car about seven kilometres south of the Olds overpass, said the RCMP.

A semi and truck sit in a ditch along Highway 2 outside Calgary Monday. ((CBC))

The car burst into flames, police said. An RCMP officer and a bystander were unsuccessful in trying to extinguish the fire.

One person died in the fiery wreckage but it will be difficult to identify the victim, said police. The semi driver was checked in hospital but relatively unhurt.

The highway, which was closed for police investigation, reopened four hours after the crash.

More than 20 centimetres of snow fell over weekend

More than 100 workers and 56 sanders and graders worked through the weekend to clean up more than 20 centimetres of snow dumped on Calgary roads.

A wind chill that made it feel like -18 C plus a fourth straight day of snow erased any thoughts of spring in Calgary.

Calgary police responded to a total of 521 accidents from 6 a.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Monday; 55 of them involved injuries, while the rest involved property damage.

RCMP warned motorists to drive carefully on southern Alberta highways. ((CBC))

With advance notice of the storm that began Friday, the city successfully tested a new de-icing system at known trouble spots, Ryan Jestin, road maintenance manager for the city, said Sunday.

Crews applied calcium chloride on areas, including the hills on 14th Street N.W. and Centre Street N.W., that made the snow melt on impact and prevent ice from sticking, he explained.

Road crews that were forced to switch from spring cleanup to snow removal will go back to re-sweep roads that were cleaned before the snowfall began, said the city.

Temperatures are not forecast to return to the seasonal average of about 5 C until the end of the week.

A fire ban, implemented on March 26, has been lifted in Calgary because of the snowfall, said the fire department Monday.