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A fatal crash and several near misses between vehicles and snowplows in the past week has prompted a warning from the organization representing snowplow contractors in Alberta.

One person was killed and another suffered serious injuries in a head-on collision Monday north of Bonnyville after a pickup attempted to pass a vehicle and a snowplow, then collided with an oncoming pickup. The driver of the truck attempting to pass died at the scene.

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Also Monday in central Alberta, two snowplows were rear-ended and one side-swiped, all within a three-hour span. And Wednesday, a driver caused a head-on crash near Foremost while passing a highway snowplow.

Earlier this winter, a snow plow operator was forced off the road while acting to prevent a head-on crash when a driver passed the snowplow going uphill and approaching a blind corner.

Jim Rivait, CEO of the Alberta Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association, said operators are “seeing an alarming number of drivers risking death or serious injury by unsafely passing or following too closely behind winter maintenance equipment.”

So far in 2017, contractors have reported 23 collisions with snowplows.

“Drivers need to recognize the potentially devastating consequences of an impulse decision to pass or tailgate a snowplow,” Rivait said in a news release.

“They put their own lives at risk and the safety of other drivers and snowplow operators.”