Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Monday, July 16, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - One woman is dead and a man has been flown to Edmonton for treatment of serious injuries to his head and legs after their red GMC Sierra truck crashed on Highway 3 while the truck was travelling towards Yellowknife early Friday morning.

The single vehicle rollover occurred at around 5 a.m. approximately eight kilometres northwest of the Yellowknife airport - a short distance away from Fred Henne Park.

It is unclear who was driving the car, although the man and woman were the only occupants. The dead woman has been identified as 32-year-old Yellowknife resident Yvonne Mary Andrew. The unidentified man, who is not from Yellowknife, is in stable condition in Edmonton with injuries to his head and legs.

A baby seat could be seen in the back of the truck.

Const. Ryan Peters, a collision analyst with the RCMP, said the driver lost control of the vehicle and "just drove off the road for reasons unknown" into the ditch. The truck rolled over several times, ultimately landing on the driver's side approximately 200-metres from where the driver initially lost control.

The vehicle was propped up for inspection. Peters, assisted by Const. David Chamberlain, was wrapping up his forensic analysis of the wreckage at 11:30 a.m. Friday.

He said he should be able to determine whether the victims were wearing their seatbelts and how fast the vehicle was going. "Driving and weather conditions were both excellent at the time of the collision."

Dried blood lay approximately five feet from the vehicle's right side.

Both the man and woman were ejected from the vehicle, police said. The woman was located in the ditch and the man was found by the roadside.

"The female succumbed to her injuries on the scene," said Peters.

She was taken to Stanton Territorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.

Riley Kohlman, an apprentice welder, was driving to work at around 5:10 a.m. when he saw EMTs attending to the man and several police officers around the truck. "The (male victim) was in a sitting position on the road, with his back to the road," he said.

Riley said the truck looked "totally destroyed."

The cause of the collision was still under investigation as of Friday.