UPDATED 11:45 a.m. : A head-on collision on icy Grand Avenue sent two people to the hospital Thursday morning with survivable injuries.

The father and teenage daughter in a 1994 Dodge minivan were eastbound shortly before 8:30 a.m. then they swerved to miss a car approaching from 64th Street West and slammed into a westbound truck. The driver of the full-sized 2004 Dodge truck was OK.

Montana Highway Patrol Trooper JK Hoppert said the father and daughter’s injuries were non-life threatening, though emergency workers had to cut open the badly damaged van.

The accident occurred just as snow and ice began coating area roads. The Montana Highway Patrol reported several vehicle slide-offs near Huntley on Interstate 94.

Billings Police Sgt. Kevin Iffland reported seven vehicle accidents on the books by 11 a.m., with more coming as offi-cers sign off morning reports. Grand Avenue was particularly bad.

A winter weather advisory has been issued for southern Montana from Billings to the North Dakota border. Two to 4 inches of snow are predicted across the region with 5 inches possible in some areas by Friday morning. Visibility will be limited at times. Roads will be icy.

MORNING REPORT:

A 1994 Dodge minivan collided head-on with at 2004 Dodge pickup this morning, just east of the intersection of Grand and 64th Street West.

The crash happened at about 8:30 today on Grand Avenue, said Montana Highway Patrol Trooper J.K. Hopper.

The minivan carrying two people swerved to avoid an approaching car on 64th Street West and hit the pickup.

The two people in the van were transported to a hospital with non-life threading injures. The passenger of the van had to be extricated from the vehicle.