A 30-year-old Calgary man is dead after being struck by a tractor trailer on the Trans-Canada Highway near Canmore on Saturday (July 5).
A 30-year-old Calgary man is dead after being struck by a tractor trailer on the Trans-Canada Highway near Canmore on Saturday (July 5).
And while officers were investigating the incident, a drunk driver struck one of the police cruisers on the highway and was arrested and charged.
Sgt. Ryan Currie said no officers were hurt during the accident, but it was a cause for concern that night as the highway lane was closed and three police vehicles had their emergency lights activated.
“It is incredibly dangerous to work on the highway especially at night when we are dealing with investigations that is why the legislation is there to go down to 60km/h to ensure the safety of people working on the highway, ” Currie said.
The collision occurred in the eastbound lane near Lac Des Arcs where officers were dealing with a black bear that was struck and killed. The driver of the tractor trailer, Currie said, pulled over to report hitting a pedestrian on the highway to the officers.
“It didn’t seem that he had any communications, so that is why he stopped as soon as he saw one of our members, ” he said.
Currie said the body of the Calgary man was found near the Benchlands overpass in Canmore and the driver reported the man was in the lane of the highway when he was hit.
“From the account of the driver he said he was in the lane, so we are not sure what he was trying to do, ” he said. “It appears he died right away. ”
The impaired driver, 37-year-old Josh Edward Johnson from Calgary, was charged with impaired driving, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
