A semi-truck collided with a pickup truck Wednesday night on the Parks Highway, causing the pickup to roll and burst into flames while seriously injuring the driver.
The collision happened near mile 185 along the Parks Highway outside of Fairbanks just after 8 p.m.
The semi driver, 42-year-old Kevin Redd Bailey of Wasilla, was travelling north pulling double trailers. The driver of a Ford F-350 pickup truck was travelling southbound on the Parks Highway. Troopers say the truck crossed into the northbound lane when Bailey, attempting to avoid the crash, veered into the southbound lane.
Troopers say the truck collided with the semi, rolled into a guard rail and became engulfed in fire. The semi came to a stop in a roadside ditch.
The truck “hit the semi with such force, it knocked the front end of the semi-truck off the road,” Ipsen said. Bailey’s effort to evade the truck “avoided a straight head-on collision,” resulting instead in the vehicles connecting on the front passenger sides.
Trooper spokesperson Beth Ipsen said the unidentified driver sustained serious physical injures to his head “that have prevented (Troopers) from communicating” with him.
Ipsen said the man had no identification on him, and the truck was so badly burned that investigators were unable to salvage anything that could identify him from within. Ipsen said Troopers used the truck’s registration to identify the driver but it has not been sufficient to confirm his identity.
Ipsen said it’s unknown if the driver “was thrown from the truck or if he crawled out of the truck, but he was found lying in the middle of the road and the (truck) was fully engulfed in flames by the time (Cantwell EMS) first responders” arrived on the scene.
The driver was conscious when medics arrived, but Ipsen said "he did not answer questions." It’s unknown if he was unable to speak due to his injuries or if he was simply unwilling to answer.
Whiteout weather conditions forced Cantwell emergency responders to transport the man to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital by ambulance. Eventually he was flown to Anchorage, where he is currently being treated at the Alaska Native Medical Center.
Bailey was unhurt in the collision, but briefly unable to get out of the semi's cab. Ipsen said the snow was so deep he couldn't open his door and he eventually had to crawl out the window.
With the crashed semi completely blocking the road, the Parks Highway was closed for several hours. Ipsen said Troopers traveled for three and a half hours to the scene from Fairbanks, and spent an additional three and a half hours on the scene conducting crash measurements.
Ipsen said the crash remains under investigation.