A teen received life-threatening head injuries on the Flattop road last weekend when the vehicle in which he was a passenger crashed into a gate, driving a pole at the end of the gate through the windshield.
The incident happened Saturday evening at the intersection with the cemetery road, one km south of Slave Lake.
“The truck....lost control and collided with the cement barriers and gates on that road,” says a release from Const. Jay Salmon at the local RCMP detachment.
“The metal pipe (on) the gate entered through the windshield …striking two of the five occupants in the vehicle.”
“We believe they were headed to the motocross track,” said Const. Mike Taylor, also from the Slave Lake detachment in a later interview.
The gate in question – which the officer referred to as a ‘bridge out’ gate – “is usually open,” said Taylor.
He added that he was still trying to determine how the incident unfolded.
Ambulance crews transported the 42-year-old driver who had non-life-threatening injuries to the Slave Lake health complex immediately after the incident.
From there they transferred him by ground ambulance to Edmonton.
The remaining three passengers had no injuries and were released from hospital later that night.
The teen that had life-threatening injuries was airlifted to the University of Alberta hospital in Edmonton, Taylor added.
By Wednesday, however, the officer said officials at the hospital had upgraded the teen’s condition to critical but stable.
Details were sketchy as investigation continued into on the 10:00 p.m. crash, but the officer said charges were pending by Wednesday.
“Police believe that excessive speed and road conditions were contributors to the collision,” says Salmon’s report.

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