Man indicted for Seward Highway fatality

ANCHORAGE - An Eagle River man has been indicted for a fatal crash last August on the Seward Highway at Anchorage.

The Anchorage Daily News reports the July 28 indictment charges 53-year-old Steven Craig Rasic with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of 30-year-old Michael VanRoten.

Witnesses told police that Rasic's car and VanRoten's pickup truck sped away from a stoplight side-by-side moments before the crash.

Rasic denies the vehicles were racing and said Tuesday the crash was a tragic accident.

It was the second loss for the VanRoten family. His sister, 29-year-old Kimberly VanRoten, was killed in another wreck on July 4, 2009, on the Seward Highway.