A crash between a passenger bus and a tanker truck on the busy main highway from Edmonton to Fort McMurray late Wednesday sent 12 people to hospital, two of them in critical condition.

"We know some are more severe than others. The driver of the coach has been critically injured," said Joel Trudell, general manager of Red Arrow Motorcoach company.

Truck drivers say many motorists try to pass other vehicles unsafely on the single-lane Highway 63.
(CBC)

He said the bus driver was airlifted to a hospital in Edmonton. One other person is in serious condition, RCMP said Thursday.

Of the 12 people taken to hospitals, six people have now been discharged. Most of the remaining patients are in stable condition with broken bones and bruises.

The bus was heading north from Edmonton to Fort McMurray when the crash happened around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on Highway 63.

"The road conditions at the time were what I would say were in poor condition," Const. Ali Fayad of the Fort McMurray RCMP said Thursday morning.

"They remain in poor condition right now. The roads are slippery. There's a lot of ice, and right now there's blowing snow as well."

Road conditions at the time of the crash were poor, the RCMP said.
(CBC)

There were 25 passengers on the bus and two in the south-bound tanker truck, which normally carries crude oil but was empty at the time.

The bus lay on its side in a ditch Thursday morning with its front end mangled and windows smashed. The driver-side door of the tanker was twisted open.

Police shut down a stretch of the highway about 100 kilometres south of Fort McMurray overnight to investigate the crash, but the road is now reopened to traffic.

Trucker says Highway 63 drivers get impatient

The province is in the process of twinning the single-lane highway, which has been the scene of several accidents, as traffic to Fort McMurray, the oilsands hub, multiplies.

Nathan Bergen, who drives heavy transport trucks back and forth on Highway 63, said he's witnessed three fatal head-on crashes on the road.
 
Bergen said there are smart drivers who adjust their speed in poor conditions, but he also sees those who take too many chances on the highway.

"And then you get people who pull up behind them and get impatient. And when they get impatient, they start doing reckless driving, like they'll pass when they really can't see what's coming toward them."

With files from the Canadian Press