Charges stem from fatal accident

WASILLA — Alaska State Troopers are charging a man who was a passenger in a fatal car crash in September with manslaughter.

Kyle Bissonette, 20, of Wasilla, was arrested Saturday on charges of manslaughter, manslaughter of an unborn child, drunken driving, underage drinking, allowing an unauthorized person to drive and four counts of assault.

Asked in an e-mail what led troopers to the charges, spokeswoman Megan Peters replied, “We believe he caused the wreck.”

The arrest seems to validate rumors that circulated through the Valley in the days after the crash that implied Bissonette was responsible for the wreck. At the time, troopers didn’t comment publicly about the rumors but said they were investigating.

Bissonette was a passenger in a Chevrolet Trailblazer that crossed the centerline of the Parks Highway at Mile 51, near the intersection with Johnston Road.

Nobody walked away from the crash unhurt.

Bissonette, the 15-year-old driver and two 16-year-old passengers were taken to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center and a fourth passenger was flown to Anchorage.

In the other car, a 1985 Plymouth Horizon, Donna Gallant, 19, of Big Lake, and her stepfather, Tim Abell, 44, were both hospitalized.

Gallant was 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time and she lost her baby, Abell said afterward.

In the weeks after the crash, Abell said his stepdaughter was in and out of surgery but handling the procedures well. Her baby’s father, Jason Campbell, said they had planned to name the girl Keira Campbell-Gallant

Two weeks after the crash, one of the passengers in the Trailblazer, 16-year-old Chelsea Johnston, of Wasilla, died at the Alaska Native Medical Center.

Troopers say they arrested Bissonette at a home on Youngtree Drive. He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $25,000 bail.

Court records show only relatively minor charges in his past — nothing more serious than underage drinking.

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