Three dead since Friday in separate Edmonton speed-related crashes

A 26-year-old man killed in a Saturday night motorcycle crash on Winterburn Road is the third person to die on Edmonton streets in less than 48 hours due to excessive speed.

The driver of the Harley-Davidson was heading north on Winterburn Road around 7:12 p.m. Saturday when he tried to pass an Acura left of the centre line but the vehicle slowed to make a left turn onto Westview Boulevard and the speeding motorcycle collided with the driver’s side of the car, catapulting the rider and bike into the northwest ditch.

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Officers were called to the scene along with EMS but the rider was pronounced dead, police said in a Sunday morning news release. The road between 107 Avenue and 109 Avenue was shut down for hours as police investigated.

It was the third Edmonton road fatality since Friday morning, all of them involving speeding vehicles.

On Friday, a 71-year-old man died in hospital after a collision with an SUV driven by a 16-year-old in north Edmonton. The white Cadillac Escalade was travelling northbound on 97 Street when it struck a white Honda Civic driven by the senior who was trying to turn from 97 Street southbound onto 165 Avenue eastbound around 10:09 a.m., police said.

Less than 24 hours later, around 3:15 a.m. Saturday, a speeding black BMW slammed into a tree on 142 Street near 90 Avenue, killing the driver, the sole occupant.

The city police major collision investigations section was at that scene for several hours, shutting down 142 Street from 87 Avenue to 91 Avenue.

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The three deaths come on the heels of a 24-hour traffic campaign by city police May 15 in which 195 tickets for speeding violations were issued.

“The whole purpose of the operation is to focus on speeders rather than other things,” Sgt. Kerry Bates with said at the time.

Investigators are asking anyone who may have witnessed or has dash camera or other video footage of any of the three speed-related weekend fatal collisions to contact the police at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone.

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