Central Alberta collision kills 4 people, including 2 young girls: RCMP

4 others taken to hospital after vehicle collision in Clearwater County

Four people, including two children, died in a vehicle collision in central Alberta Friday afternoon, RCMP say.

Four other people were sent to hospital for their injuries. A spokesperson for STARS air ambulance told CBC News Friday night that one of its helicopters was sent to the scene, airlifting a woman in her 30s to an Edmonton hospital.

RCMP issued a news release shortly after 5:15 p.m. MT Friday, advising about a collision on O'Chiese Road in Clearwater County, roughly 30 kilometres northwest of Rocky Mountain House, Alta.

In an update Saturday, police said a collision reconstructionist attended the scene.

The cause is still being investigated, police say, but a minivan carrying three people and a SUV with five people were involved in the crash.

Two men in the van — the 74-year-old driver and a 51-year-old passenger, both from Rocky Mountain House — and two girls in the SUV, aged five and six from O'Chiese First Nation, were all declared dead at the scene.

The four other people in the vehicles were sent to hospital for their injuries.

With files from Michael King and Nicholas Frew