Massive chain reaction crash in Alberta

Photo: CTV

Dozens of vehicles were involved in the chain-reaction crash on the QEII Highway north of Calgary.

Emergency crews were called to the scene of a huge crash on the QEII Highway between Carstairs and Didsbury that killed one person and left a number of others injured.

The crash happened at about 8:15 a.m. Thursday morning and police say about 30 vehicles were involved.

EMS confirms one man died at the scene and another person is in serious condition.

Four others suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The southbound lanes are closed while police investigate.The northbound lanes are not affected.

"Conditions like these can make travel very dangerous," said Inspector Stephen Grant, Officer-in-Charge of Traffic Operations, Alberta RCMP, "We encourage you to use 511 and check road conditions before you travel."

A truck driver, on his way to Calgary, was about 15 metres behind the crash and managed to avoid the pileup.

"The road conditions are really bad. There's white-out conditions all the way down the highway and people were kind of going a little bit too fast for the conditions and then the little SUV actually hit the tanker truck and then it was one after the other from there," said John.

John says other truckers were reporting bad conditions so he knew what was coming.

"I reacted in time so, most of the northbound trucks were saying there was a stop on the road so everybody had the warning ahead of time so it was good to know."

Traffic is being detoured onto Highway 2A but motorists are advised to avoid the area altogether.

There is no word yet on the name of the deceased.

The highway was reopened at about 3:15 p.m.