Update: On Friday evening, Alaska State Troopers released more details on a Parks highway crash that killed two people and said traffic returned to normal.
Troopers said a man and woman were declared dead on the scene, and the identities of the victims were not released because next of kin has not been identified as of 8:30 p.m. Friday.
The crash happened between a Nissan passenger car and a Chevy Avalanche around 3:30 p.m. near Milepost 337 in a hilly section between Fairbanks and Nenana.
In a news release, Beth Ipsen, AST spokesperson, said the crash victims were in a Nissan passenger car heading southbound on the Parks Highway that has three lanes – one lane going southbound and two heading northbound.
Troopers said the Nissan fishtailed with the “hind end kicking out to the left,” as it got to the bottom of a hill and then the driver over-corrected “causing the vehicle to fishtail to the right and cross the center line.”
Troopers said he missed hitting a vehicle in the first lane and slid in front of a Chevy Avalanche “basically t-boning the car.”
Troopers identified the driver of the Chevy as 49-year-old Rhonda Coghill, of Nenana, and her passengers as her 28-year-old daughter Ladonna Coghill and granddaughter 5-year-old Arianna Coghill.
The Coghills suffered non-life threatening injuries, and troopers said the younger Coghills were treated as a precaution.
Troopers said that winter driving conditions were a factor and that traffic returned to normal around 7:30 p.m.
Original: Alaska State Troopers have reopened one lane of the Parks Highway near Fairbanks after a two-vehicle crash killed two people and left another injured.
Beth Ipsen says traffic at Milepost 337 of the Parks, between Fairbanks and Nenana, remains slow despite the available lane.
"We want to keep traffic moving because we don't want cars stalling, because it's 20 below at the scene," Ipsen said.
Full details are not yet available, but Ipsen says the crash involved a 2009 Chevrolet truck and a 2008 Nissan passenger car.
According to AST spokesperson Megan Peters, emergency medical services confirmed the deaths at Milepost 337 of the Parks, about 23 miles south of Fairbanks between the city and Nenana.
Troopers were informed of the wreck at 3:27 p.m., and five troopers as well as a Fairbanks Police Department traffic officer are conducting a full investigation of the crash.
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