One killed, 2 hospitalized in car accident
One person was killed and two others were taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital after a head-on collision early Wednesday evening on Brotherhood Bridge on Glacier Highway.
Information about the deceased was unavailable at press time, but Juneau Police Sgt. Ed Mercer said the victim was a female driving an inbound Plymouth Neon. However, it is now known that the driver of the 1997 Dodge Neon Sedan was a 25 year old female, Jody Watson, a University of Alaska Southeast college student. She was apparently alone in the car.
A blanket covered the body in the car, crumpled against the bridge railing at the inbound lane as officers directed traffic around the accident scene under a steady drizzle in the dwindling evening light.
The van, which sustained front-end damage, was in the lane. Capital City Fire and Rescue took two of its occupants from the scene.
The accident report from the two-lane bridge crossing the Mendenhall River came in at about 6:30 p.m. Mercer said there was at least one minor accident as other inbound traffic stopped approaching the scene.
Mercer said Wednesday night the accident remained under investigation and officers had not yet begun to piece together what happened or what factors may have contributed to the accident. However, according to today's preliminary investigation, the driver of the van had his attention diverted from the roadway and veered into the eastbound lane of Glacier Highway.