Driver, passengers flee after jeep hits utility pole

June 5, 2007

By Hannah Guillaume

Frontiersman

PALMER - Palmer residents got an early morning wake-up call on Monday when a vehicle that slammed into a telephone pole on Werner Road spewed stuffed animals and fire into the ditch.

&#8220It was a pretty scary way to wake up,” said Kelly Christensen, a homeowner whose property line borders the telephone pole where the accident one block north of Trunk Road occurred. &#8220”It was really surreal looking. You're standing on the deck, and the whole ditch was on fire.”

Initially, he said, he thought sparks were pouring into his bedroom and his house was on fire. But Christensen quickly realized that the flashing streams of amber came from a window reflecting his sparking transformer.

As she looked out their front window, Ginger Christensen said she saw a blue 1994 Jeep Cherokee wrapped around a telephone pole at the end of their driveway.

&#8220The telephone pole was on fire,” she said. &#8220It looked like there was fire all the way up the ditch line.”

Christensen said he went out the front door calling out to the people he could see and hear moving near the flaming Jeep and sparking power lines that made &#8220whizzing and popping” noises. He said when he asked the people if they were okay, they got quiet.

He said not long afterward, he heard what sounded like a girl's voice yelling, &#8220Come on, lets go you guys. Let's go.” Christensen said he watched three figures running through the trees and sparking lights south down Werner Road toward Trunk Road.

&#8220I definitely know three people were out there,” he said.

The Christensen's phone lines went down after the crash, along with about 26 nearby buildings, said Lee Dixon, a Matanuska Telephone Association cable splicer who worked for more than eight hours Monday repairing the lines.

Christensen said he dialed 911 on his cell phone and headed down to the burning vehicle to make sure that no one was trapped inside.

&#8220The vehicle was actually wrapped around the pole, touching it,” he added.

As he approached with his flashlight, he said what he saw horrified him: Two brown legs were hanging off the Jeep. After a closer inspection - lit by sparks flying from the telephone pole - he said he realized the legs were attached to a stuffed animal.

A brown, stuffed monkey was still lying in the ditch near his driveway on Monday night.

Alaska State Trooper Robert Casey was the first to arrive on the scene at 2:36 a.m., according to trooper reports.

Christensen said Casey seemed to arrive in just minutes and emptied his extinguisher on the sparking mess that was now his front yard.

&#8220He jumped right in and did what he was supposed to,” Christensen said.

Trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said two people troopers suspect might have been injured during the incident were taken by private vehicle to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

&#8220They were injured, but apparently not life threatening,” Ipsen said. &#8220The road was closed for some time, but that was to remove the vehicle.”

The driver and extent of injuries and treatment are still unknown. The investigation is ongoing and troopers did not release the name of the vehicle's registered owner and the vehicle's registration status.

Anyone with information regarding this incident can call Alaska State Troopers at 745-2131 or Crime Stoppers at

745-3333.

Contact Hannah Guillaume at 352-2250 or hannahguillaume@yahoo.com.