NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Don Tourangeau and Alden Vogt didn't need to exit their vehicle to know the accident scene they were approaching was going to be a bad one.
A major truck collision killed two drivers 50 km north of Fort Providence, near Chan Lake, Tuesday morning. One person survived the crash and was airlifted to Stanton Territorial Hospital. The highway reopened yesterday morning. - photo courtesy of Alden Vogt
Son devastated by loss of father: gas station manager
A gas station manager near Fort Providence says the driver of the fuel transport truck killed in Tuesday's horrific crash on Highway 3 was with a convoy of vehicles that included his son driving another truck ahead of him.
He was waiting for him at the Big River Service Centre when he learned of the accident, said Dave Wilkes, general manager of the popular truck stop on the north side the Mackenzie River.
That is not the only father-son connection in this tragedy either, said Wilkes. The passenger in the Dyno Nobel truck who survived the accident was travelling with his father, who was driving the truck when he died. None of the accident victims had been identified at press time.
"The son (of the fuel transport truck driver) came through first in his Ventures West tanker and his father was about 15 minutes behind," said Wilkes.
"(The father) never showed. Somebody said there was a big accident and the fella was all upset about it. Somebody later came in and said there were two dead and he just lost it right on the spot."
Glen Bauer, president of Ventures West Transport LP, refrained from identifying the men, but said the father was coming back from a fuel haul to the Snap Lake diamond mine to get another load in Hay River. He said the driver was a longtime employee and the news impacted those who knew him very hard.
"It is a tragic loss because he was a driver who worked with us for a number of seasons hauling on the same haul to the mine site," said Bauer. "So it has been hard on the employees who knew him."
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The two men were returning to Fort Smith from a Conservative caucus meeting in Yellowknife between 10 and 10:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, along with friends Dave Beamish and Peter Martselos, when they came upon a scene of horror about 50 km from Fort Providence on their long drive south on Highway 3.
Before them, two massive transport trucks were sprawled across the road. A Super B fuel tanker was in flames, the contents of the other truck, which they later found out were explosives, had spilled out of a gaping hole at the front of trailer and all over the highway.
"It was head on, definitely head on in my opinion because of the damage it did," said Tourangeau on Wednesday, who was among the first members of the public on scene.
When they arrived, there were three Super B trains already parked nearby. The two men said the southbound fuel tanker was completely engulfed in flames, with the driver dead inside and inaccessible. The driver in the Dyno Nobel explosives truck was also dead, however, they were able to assist his male passenger.
"We assisted him and had found him lying between the truck, which was in the ditch, and the trailer, which was still facing northbound," said Tourangeau.
"He was injured and was still talking to me. I kept talking to him because when they are in that state you don't want them to be stopping."
Vogt said he didn't know whether the man had been thrown from the truck, crawled out on his own, or had been pulled out of the truck by someone else.
Tourangeau said he and Vogt used a piece of plywood from their truck as a stretcher and some nearby pallets to get through the deep snow in the ditch so they could bring the passenger to safety. According to Vogt, the man "was pretty banged up" and incoherent. The man was covered in blood, and more was coming out of his mouth as he tried to breathe.
"We thought he must have a lung injury or another internal injury," said Vogt.
While everyone present had cellphones, they were too far away to get a signal and make a call for assistance. At that point, they made the painful decision to go for help and leave the injured man with other truckers at the scene.
"We gave the best assistance we could, but we could not stay there," said Tourangeau. "If we stayed there it might have been another hour before someone came to give us help. So that was why we made the decision to move the dynamite off the road and drive over the rest of it to go for help."
After 15 minutes of driving, they came across a snowplow driver, who radioed for help, according to the two men.
The accident survivor was eventually airlifted to Stanton Territorial Hospital and then medevaced to Edmonton. His condition was unknown at press time.
Yellowknifer has learned that there were two father and son connections in the accident.
Police are not releasing the identity of the people involved until the next of kin are notified. RCMP Cpl. Barry Ledoux said fatal accidents like this one are rare North of 60.
"This is no Fort McMurray highway, but we are very lucky and fortunate here," said Ledoux of the frequency of highway accidents.
Tourangeau said, in his opinion, road and weather conditions were not a factor in the accident.
"You could hold the road good at 90 km/h and it was not slippery," said Tourangeau. "I can also tell you there were no skid marks on either truck."
Highway 3 was reopened yesterday morning once the trucks and explosives had been cleared out of the way. Ledoux said he could not comment on how hazardous the explosives were.
He expects the investigation into the accident will take several weeks. Both vehicles have been taken to an undisclosed location for examination.
"As far as we are concerned, our investigation now starts," said Ledoux. "We have done all of our preliminary crime scene investigations. So now we can start putting the pieces together."
