Two die, five are injured in Parks Highway car crash

Two people died and five others were injured in a two-vehicle collision near Mile 176 of the Parks Highway around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. Donna Vaughn, 56, and her teenaged granddaughter, Coral Hammond, both of Palmer, were pronounced dead on the scene. Vaughn’s husband, Donald Vaughn, 60, and Hammond’s 7-year-old sister, Maizy Hammond, were also injured. The Vaughns and their two granddaughters were in a 2006 Hyundai Sonata going southbound and collided with a 2005 GMC truck driven by Ann Peeples, 68, of Palmer.  Alaska State Troopers are still investigating but said on Friday morning that Peeples was traveling northbound on the Parks Highway and was rounding a downhill right-hand corner when she apparently lost control of the truck and slid into the south bound lane where the truck collided head-on with the Vaughn’s Hyundai.  Peeples and her two passengers, Deborah Gilcrest, 51, of Anchorage and Doris Thomas, 41, of Palmer, were also transported for treatment of their injuries.

Emergency service personnel from Willow, Talkeetna and Sunshine responded to the accident. Talkeetna Fire and EMS district chief Ken Farina was the incident commander and coordinated rescue operations on the scene, 91 miles north of Talkeetna. Farina said that the accident was the worst he’s seen all winter. Rescue personnel had to extricate the injured people from both cars. Four people reportedly sustained critical injuries during the crash. Two helicopters and a fixed wing airplane were on the scene to get the injured to various hospitals. Maizy Hammond and Donald Vaughn were taken to Providence Medical Center, Peeples was transported to Alaska Regional Hospital and Gilcrest and Thomas were taken to Mat-Su Regional.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation. Alaska State Troopers from the Cantwell post and the Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol responded to the scene to conduct the investigation into the cause of the crash. The highway was opened to one lane traffic at about 7 p.m. and was fully open again at 9:30 pm.