Two people were killed on Thursday, September 14th in a multi-vehicle collision near Tustumena Elementary at mile 110 of the Sterling Highway in Kasilof.
Alaska State Troopers were notified just after 3:30 p.m. on September 14th of the accident, and responded to the scene along with local EMS.
A preliminary investigation revealed that a Toyota sedan was driving northbound when it began to slow for an active school zone. At the same time, a Ford pickup truck, also traveling northbound, failed to slow down for the school zone and collided with the rear of the sedan. As a result of the collision the sedan lost control, and went into the oncoming lane where it was struck by a Dodge van that was traveling southbound.
The driver of the sedan, 56-year-old Kasilof resident Dino Leite, was declared deceased at the scene. The only other occupant of the sedan, 26-year-old Chase Logan, died while enroute to a Kenai Peninsula area hospital.
The driver of the van received minor injuries, and a passenger in the van sustained serious injuries, both were transported to a Kenai Peninsula area hospital for medical care.
The accident is now the third in a string of fatal collisions on the Sterling Highway this September, bringing the death toll in the last two weeks to six. Two fatalities resulted from separate accidents which occurred about 2 hours apart on September 3rd. Then earlier this week on Monday, September 11th, a car drifted across the center line near the Fuller Lakes Trailhead and collided with a transit mixing semitruck, killing both the woman and child in the car.
Following Thursday’s accident in Kasilof, emergency Services fully closed the Sterling Highway for one hour and thirty minutes immediately after the accident, and then kept it partially closed for an additional hour and thirty minutes as Troopers documented the scene and cleared roadway debris.
Both Leite and Logan’s bodies are being sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy. Next of kin have been notified.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing; no citations have been issued or arrests made at this time.