A crash on an unpaved road in rural central Alberta that left four people dead and four more injured has renewed ongoing calls for the street to be made safer.
The collision happened Friday on a stretch of Township Road 42-5A in Clearwater County that is also known as O’Chiese Road.
The road is the most common route for people to get to and from the O’Chiese First Nation and the nearby town of Rocky Mountain House. Two children were among the dead and the four people who were injured were taken to hospital.
The First Nation is about 72 kilometres northwest of Rocky Mountain House.
“We could have prevented this accident if that road was cleaned up, paved,” said O’Chiese First Nation Chief Phyllis Whitford.
“There’s been many deaths on that road over time… too many. And it’s still not taken care of.”
People in the community, such as members of the O’Chiese council, have long advocated for funding from all levels of government to modernize the unpaved road to improve safety.
The RCMP has said investigators are still working to determine what caused Friday’s crash, which involved a minivan and an SUV. Police said the two adults who were killed were from Rocky Mountain House and the two children who died were from O’Chiese First Nation.
One was taxi driver Dwayne Hammell. His daughter, Shelly Hammell, told CBC News via Messenger that “if we can get that road paved then I would feel that dad made a difference in the saddest way possible but he would be saving others.”
People who regularly travel on the road, a 16.8-kilometre portion of Township Road 42-5A between Buster Creek Road and the boundary of O’Chiese First Nation face a collision rate more than five times the provincial average, according to a 2025 report from WSP Canada.
It is the only route for people to travel from the O’Chiese First Nation to Rocky Mountain House without going through the neighbouring Sunchild First Nation, said the report.
This makes the road a prime candidate for repairs, said Darcy Goodrunning, who lives in nearby Sunchild First Nation and knows people who have lost their lives on the road.
He said he used to drive it daily, but has instead started to drive an extra 12 kilometres through Sunchild First Nation to avoid the road.
“It’s sad that we have to deal with this,” Goodrunning said of the fear residents have of being injured or killed while driving on the road.
Whitford said the road is almost at the point that it is impassable, but is used by many including emergency services, workers in oil and gas and forestry, and parents bringing their children to school.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re white or brown, it’s our people and our service providers that are taking a risk every time you go out there.”
The road itself also has very little cell service.
The report, which was commissioned by the O’Chiese First Nation, notes that if emergency and other essential services are unable to reach the community “or take longer than expected to reach the community, this is likely to result in negative impacts on the health, economic opportunities and overall well-being of residents, and could potentially result in loss of life in an emergency.”
The report also recommends that funds be put toward the road by Clearwater County to ensure it doesn’t further hinder the First Nations, noting those communities have no authority over improvements to the stretch of road because “they are a user rather than the owner.”
“That’s not an O’Chiese road, that’s a road that leads to the nation. And if it was our responsibility, then of course we’d find ways to take care of it,” Whitford said.
“Clearwater County has responsibility on that road. The province should also have responsibility… they still are going to be meeting with federal government. “
In council documents, Clearwater County said concerns for safety made paving the busy road a priority for several years. Whitford’s opinion is the contrary: “We’re not a priority.”
She said in a 2025 letter to Premier Danielle Smith that her community has lobbied for action to be taken on the matter for 20 years.
In 2014, a firm contracted by Clearwater County estimated it would cost $16.7 million to pave the road and repair a nearby bridge.
In 2024, over $12 million federal funding for the bridge was secured through the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, but no federal funding has been obtained for the road itself.
By 2026, the cost estimate for paving had increased to $26.4 million, prompting Clearwater County Reeve Jordon Northcott to ask the province in March to increase its commitment to help fund the road improvements from around $8 million to more than $17 million.
CBC News reached out to Northcott, but did not receive comment by publication time.
The province’s funding comes with caveats. Clearwater County will only see that money if it can both match the $8.8 million in funds and secure the same amount from the federal government.
In Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen’s response dated May 15, he specified that as the county hasn’t yet secured funds from Ottawa, the province will reallocate the money set aside for this initiative to other priority projects. Whitford said they were told if the project does not begin by April 2028, the county’s current funding would too be reallocated.
The province will revisit paving the road once funds have been matched by Ottawa, Dreeshen wrote in the letter.
In a 2024 APTN article, Dreeshen said that the provincial government is considering ways to pay for the road if the federal government will not pay.
CBC News asked if this was still being explored – but did not receive an answer. Instead a statement on Monday from a spokesperson for Dreeshen’s office told CBC News that the ministry will again urge the federal transportation minister to provide funding for the paving of O’Chiese Road.
Yellowhead MP William Stevenson, who represents the area, said it would be prudent to pave the road as soon as possible as “the delay just makes it more costly all the time.”
“[O’Chiese] have contacted multiple different ministers who have changed portfolios. It’s been out there for a while, it’s just not getting any progress,” he said. “My problem at the moment is figuring out who will actually say it’s a responsibility, because it seems like a lot of them are saying ‘Oh, that’s not my area. You need to talk to somebody else.’
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s something against First Nations, but [rural] Alberta’s being ignored when it comes to fair treatment on government funds.”
He said when he visited the nation in March, he was warned “something bad’s going to happen”.
“It did. And it just kind of breaks my heart that that’s where it’s gotten to. I hope that we can get some resolution before anything further happens,” he said.
Representatives from O’Chiese First Nation will travel to Ottawa next week to advocate for the road.
CBC News reached out to the federal government, but did not receive comment by publication time.
