Kudos to the Samaritans at Mile 186.6

It must have sounded like thunder Sunday afternoon when two trucks collided at Mile 186.6 in the center of the snowy two-lane Parks Highway. The devastating impact is easy to see but hard to look at in the Alaska State Troopers photos.

Several inches of snow had already accumulated and more was falling as David Kincaid of Palmer and Roy K. Ponder of Fairbanks piloted their Super Duty Ford trucks toward home. Troopers say weather and road conditions were factors when Kincaid’s F550 crossed the centerline and crashed head-on into Ponder’s F450. Neither driver survived.

Passengers in the vehicles, Kincaid’s daughter, Molly, and Ponder’s wife Teresa A. Ponder, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were transported by ambulance to hospitals in Palmer and Fairbanks.

But this section of the highway is desolate, 23 miles south of Cantwell, 72 miles north of Trapper Creek. It’s a section of the highway where the old Alaska ways prevail and travelers are especially likely to offer aid because doing less could prove fatal.

Borough emergency responders who work the northern stretch of the Parks say they’ve seen it before, where the first people on scene to call in a size-up of the incident scene are combat-trained medics or emergency room physicians’ assistants.

It happened again on Sunday.

Spokesperson Beth Ipsen said when troopers arrived at Mile 186.6 it was overwhelming how many volunteers with medical training were out of their cars responding to the emergency. She said the Good Samaritans had attended training in Anchorage and were headed back to Fairbanks when they came upon the accident.

Beyond the medical care these Alaskans provided, troopers also believe they provided a deeper sort of care and comfort to the women who survived. There is no value we can place on a kind touch or reassuring words offered in such circumstances.

We do not know these heroes by name, but we thank them for their selfless actions. Truly, this is the best in us — that we help each other.

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Covering the news in the Valley is different. We know generations of the Kincaid family. The Ponders live in Fairbanks, but we know they have friends here, too.

A lot more people live here than when the Kincaid family bought the Valley Hotel. But Alaska is small enough still to see clearly how we are all connected.

That showed up on Facebook Sunday evening when we posted a note saying the road was closed. People immediately began posting condolences for both families, though we didn’t know their names or where they were from until later. We learned that one driver was a Palmer man after a family member posted to thank people posting to Facebook for their prayers.

It made us proud to read your heartfelt notes. As Gayle Stanford White said in her post there, sometimes people blame the drivers involved in a crash and say cruel things that only amplify the anguish. But not this time.

“I need to just say that reading all your comments about this tragedy is heart touching,” Stanford White posted. “I am very touched by the nice comments. I just had to say that!”

We agree, and join our neighbors in offering our condolences to the Kincaid and Ponder families. And to that we add our highest praise for the Samaritans at Mile 186.6.