Sudden hail storm causes three-car pile-up near Logan Lake

A  woman was air-lifted to hospital for treatment of a back injury following a three-vehicle pile-up along Highway 97C just south of Logan Lake on Saturday morning (June 6).

Logan Lake RCMP spokesperson Cst. Jacob Jungheim said the accident was caused by a sudden hail storm causing icy conditions.

“It iced up the whole highway and one vehicle that was heading northbound crashed into a cement barrier and rolled over that and down the ditch,” said Cst. Jungheim.

“It had the mom, the grandmother and a 10-month-old baby in there.”

Two other vehicles were involved in the crash shortly after, one of which had two adults and two children inside.

“Another vehicle coming southbound stopped on the side of the highway to help the first vehicle that rolled over. Another car came around the corner heading northbound, it hit the concrete barrier further back and then crashed into the parked car that was unoccupied,” explained Jungheim.

The mother in the first vehicle was air-lifted for medical treatment, while everyone else involved was assessed at Royal Inland Hospital.

Jungheim said an ice storm is unusual weather for June

The weather was kind of a freak thing. Nobody thinks in June that there will be ice on the highway, but when I got there it was a sheet of ice and hail was piled right on,” said Jungheim.

“It didn’t last very long and it was pretty much all melted by the time we were done.”

The highway was closed for about an hour while emergency crews were on the scene.