5 killed in crash on Seward Highway
ANCHORAGE - Five people were killed Tuesday when a tractor-trailer truck crossed the center line and smashed into a van taking prisoners to Seward, Alaska State Troopers said.
Four inmates and one correctional officer were killed in the crash on the Seward Highway about 20 miles north of the Kenai Peninsula city.
Troopers said the accident occurred at about 12:30 p.m.
The driver of the van, James Hesterberg, 48, of Wasilla, was killed. The names of the dead inmates were not immediately released.
Four other people were injured, said trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson. Three of the injured were taken to the Providence Seward Medical Center in Seward. One of the injured, correctional officer Dennis Nilsen, 49, of Eagle River, was in stable condition.
Two injured inmates were airlifted to the Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.
The driver of the truck, owned by C&C Investments in Fairbanks, was not injured.
Wilkinson said the van was taking prisoners from a corrections facility in Palmer north of Anchorage to the Spring Creek Correctional Facility in Seward. It was raining and snowing when the truck, which was headed north, crossed the center line and hit the southbound van, he said.