Three people were taken to hospital with minor injuries on Thursday morning after a van struck a parked ambulance along Hwy 2 near Bowden.
The ambulance was believed to be coming from Red Deer transferring a patient for non-emergency reasons when it stopped to check on the occupants of one of the vehicles that had gone into the ditch, said Sheriff Sgt. Matt Firmston with the Innisfail Integrated Traffic Services.
“There was four separate collisions within about 500 metres of each other in that area at the time, most of them single vehicles that had gone into the ditch,” he said.
The ambulance was struck around 10:30 a.m. in the southbound lanes of Hwy 2, two km south of Bowden.
The two paramedics and the patient in the ambulance did not report any injuries.
The three occupants in the van, all from Ontario, were transported to hospitals in Olds and Innisfail.
Firmston said it was anticipated they would be released later Thursday.
The driver of the van has been charged with careless driving.
Innisfail ITS issued a travel advisory earlier in the day, urging drivers to slow down on the highway between Red Deer and Calgary due to limited visibility with blowing snow and icy conditions.
There had been no more reported collisions since 2 p.m. said Firmston around 4 p.m.
“Our unit responded to nine collisions (Thursday) between Innisfail and Didsbury and that was all in about a two-hour period this morning.”