A couple of major crashes to start off the holidays.

About 10:45 Christmas eve morning EMS responded to the westbound lanes of Highway 1 just before the exit to northbound Highway 22 for reports of a two vehicle collsion.

A van travelling east bound on Highway 1 had lost control, entered the centre median and struck a car travelling westbound.

Three peopple were assessed by paramedics, two occupants of the car, and the single male driver of the van.

Injuries are considered non-life threatening.

There's also been a crash on Highway 3 near Monarch

Meantime at around 11:40 a.m. there was a three vehicle collision on the eastbound lanes of Highway 3 just east of the junction with Highway 3A. Lethbridge/Coaldale RCMP, Lethbridge Integrated Traffic Unit along with the Coalhurst Fire Department and other emergency services attended the scene. It was determined a small car and SUV collided and the SUV continued forward into the rear end of a snow plow. There was little to no damage to the snow plow.

Road conditions at the time were poor with blowing snow and snow/ice covered roads. This collision resulted in minor injuries to an occupant of the SUV.
 
While emergency workers were being set up to assist with the collision scene a second collision occurred when another SUV slid into a pickup truck which then slid into a fire truck. There were no injuries resulting from that collision and little to no damage to the fire truck.
 
A third collision then occurred involving a van and a SUV.  There were minor injuries to an occupant of the SUV.
 
One lane of Highway 3 was blocked for about two hours while the injured persons were taken to the Lethbridge Hospital for assessments and to allow the damaged vehicles to be safely removed from the highway.
 
All these collisions were in part due to the large volumes of traffic traveling during the holiday season, the poor weather and road conditions.

Motorists are reminded to slow down and drive appropriate to the road conditions.