RCMP divert traffic while assisting semis on Beaver River Hill

On November 1st, at approximately 5:00 pm, Cold Lake RCMP were returning from a call in Cold Lake First Nations when they came upon a situation on the Beaver River hill, near Casino Dene, on Highway 28. Constable Dave Hart, explains that three semi-trucks were having problems making it up the hill.

“It was really slippery and it looked like there had been a collision involving a semi on the hill,” Cst. Hart says when he responded he noted a semi pulled over on the side of the highway, at the bottom of the hill. “There was no collision there, but the road was so icy that [the driver] felt like he was losing control, so he pulled over to the side of the road.” Traffic was heavy during this time, “our automatic reaction was concern for safety. That hill is bad at the best of times, let alone when it’s a sheet of ice.”

Fortunately, there was an off-duty fire fighter there, who offered assistance. With the help of the fire fighter, police were able to stop traffic, before anyone else came down the hill. By the time traffic was stopped, two other semis came down the hill and were stuck at the bottom, explains Cst. Hart, “by that time there were two other semis that had gotten through, before the traffic was stopped. They were in a similar situation.” One was a fuel truck and had slide into the on-coming lane. “The safest thing to do was to stop traffic until we could get a hold of Carrillon to sand the road.”

RCMP members and the off-duty fire fighter did an amazing job at letting the public know the situation at hand. “Nobody was hurt or anything, but it was a safety issue. The general public were great to deal with and had no issue with [the traffic stop].” Traffic was diverted for about an hour and a half. Carrillion was able to come sand and the semis were escorted through the hill safely.