2-vehicle accident briefly closes Glenn Highway

PALMER — Snow falling this late in the year slickened roads but, at least judging by calls to local emergency responders, the recent warm spell hasn’t caused Valley drivers to forget how to deal with it.

Central Mat-Su Deputy Fire Chief Michael Keenan said his department had been summoned to two car wrecks over the course of the morning Thursday. The first was on Fairview Loop. Medics were sent back to the station before they arrived when it became clear no one was hurt.

Then at around 8:30 a.m., Jay W. Sabic, 26, of Palmer lost control of his 1988 Jeep Cherokee heading northbound on the Glenn Highway, crossed into the southbound lanes and rolled several times.

On scene, a southbound 1991 Dodge Ram driven by Larry M. Elam, 60, of Eagle River, was also smashed and came to rest facing the opposite direction. The Jeep came to rest in the center of the southbound lane on its wheels.

“I don’t know that the other vehicle was involved or just went off and crashed on his own,” Keenan said of the Dodge.

In an e-mail, Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said the two vehicles did indeed make contact with each other.

The accident sent the Jeep’s driver to the hospital and closed the Glenn Highway southbound temporarily.

Central Mat-Su and Palmer responders arrived on the scene around 8:45 a.m. and worked to pull the Jeep’s driver from the wreck.

As they worked, a string of traffic was stopped and cars were backed up along the southbound Glenn for about three miles. The roadway was opened soon after the patient was loaded into the ambulance and transported to Mat-Su Regional Hospital, and subsequently on to Alaska Regional Hospital for treatment of his injuries, according to a trooper press release.

The Jeep was totaled and damage to the Dodge was estimated at $2,000. Both drivers were wearing their seatbelts and the investigation is ongoing.

Both accidents occurred in the morning, Keenan said, because as the sun came out snow started to soften up and got less slick.

That’s pretty much the same thing Palmer Police Department Cmdr. Tom Remaley said. The snow didn’t increase his department’s activity in any appreciable way. By the time he went to an anti-domestic violence march late Thursday morning it was mostly slush, Remaley said.

Robert DeBerry contributed to this story.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.