Honor procession escorts Toll home this morning

ANCHORAGE — The public is invited to pay its respects along the highway this morning when an honor procession of Alaska law enforcement officers will escort the remains of Alaska State Trooper Tage Toll from Anchorage to the Valley.

The procession begins in Anchorage at 10 a.m. and follows the Glenn Highway to the Parks Highway into Wasilla. There it will turn onto the Palmer-Wasilla Extension and follow it to the Alaska Heritage Funeral Home, 1015 Check St., where Toll’s remains will be prepared for burial.

Trooper spokesperson Megan Peters said drivers should expect travel on the roads to be impacted while the procession passes. The honor procession has the right of way and all other drivers must yield and are advised not to cut into the procession, she said.

She said the procession is expected to be near Trunk Road between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m.

Alaskans are invited to line the route or — pull over when they see the procession — and pay their respects, she said.

Toll and two other men were killed in the crash of Helo-1 on Saturday. Pilot Mel Nading, 55, and Toll, 40, had flown in aid of 56-year-old Carl Ober of Talkeetna when the aircraft went down just short of its rendezvous with medics at the Sunshine Tesoro station

Events leading up to the crash began at about 7:35 p.m., Saturday, when troopers received a cellphone call from Ober saying he was injured and stranded near Larson Lake near Talkeetna, said Col. Keith Mallard, Alaska State Troopers director.