Three people were transported to the hospital on Friday, September 22nd as the result of a major vehicle collision at Mile 20 of Kalifornsky Beach Road, near College Heights Baptist Church. Fortunately, no one appeared to suffer life-threatening injuries, according to a statement from Alaska State Troopers at that time. The accident represents a growing trend on peninsula roads regarding the number of serious accidents, and they’re not trending in a positive direction.
Since Labor Day weekend, there have been six fatalities on peninsula roads as a result of high-speed vehicle collisions.
AST Detachment A Commander, Captain Mike Zweifel was present at the scene of the K-Beach accident on Friday, and made a plea to the public that in order to turn this unprecedented trend back in the right direction, people must reduce their number of distractions while driving. According to Captain Zweifel, all but one of the recent fatal accidents were related to distracted driving.
There’s like five things, and I guess I’m pleading to the public here for these five things,” said Zweifel. “Don’t drive impaired. Don’t talk on your phone or don’t use your phone while you’re driving. Keep the distractions down in the car, and I’m talking about fiddling with the radio, adjusting your seat belt, grooming yourself – a host of a number of things that people do inside the car. Watch the aggressive driving out there on the roads; that’s the speeding, that’s the aggressive passing, all of that stuff in general, the aggressive driving. And last is where your seat belt. That’s my plea to the communities here that will greatly reduce our fatalities that we’ve had recently, and the crashes that we’re experiencing here lately.”
On August 6th a pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle on the Sterling Highway near Happy Valley. Then earlier this month, on Labor Day weekend, a vehicle crossed the center line at Mile 71.5 of the Sterling Highway near Watson Lake, and collided head on with another vehicle. One died in that accident. On September 8th, another vehicle crossed the center line, this time near the Fuller Lakes Trail Head, and struck a cement transit truck head on. Two were killed in that accident. And then on On September 14th, a truck failed to slow for the school zone on the Sterling Highway in front of Tustumena Elementary, and collided at high speed with the rear end of a sedan. Two more were killed as a result of that collision, and another seriously wounded.
Although he could not provide any specific details regarding the accident on Friday, Captain Zweifel stated that distracted driving was at play in that collision as well.
Another accident, and three more in the hospital.
Please do your part to keep everyone safe on Kenai Peninsula roads by reducing or eliminating distractions while you’re driving. And remember, no amount of time saved by driving aggressively is worth your life, or the life of someone else.
