Man charged with assault in drunk driving crash

PALMER — A crash just outside of Palmer landed one Sutton man in jail for drunken driving and another in the hospital in critical condition.

According to a press release from Alaska State Troopers, the wreck was reported at 11:15 p.m., Friday at Mile 53, Glenn Highway. That milepost, according to Mat-Su Borough maps, is at the highway’s intersection with Buffalo Mine Road.

The drivers were Peter E. Wilson, 61 and Gerhard Jakits, 46.

Trooper Peter Frederick writes in documents filed in the case against Wilson that when he arrived on scene he saw two vehicles.

“I observed a Ford F-150 … facing southbound in the northbound lane with substantial driver-side damage,” he wrote. “About 50 yards further north of the Ford was a small sedan with extreme damage to the driver’s side. The sedan was identified as a Mitsubishi.”

Frederick writes that he smelled alcohol on the breath of Wilson, who had been driving the Ford pickup and who medics were cutting out of the pickup.

“He had watery and bloodshot eyes,” Frederick wrote.

Frederick writes that Wilson was southbound on the Glenn when he crossed the centerline in front of Jakits.

A second trooper, Pete Steen, gave Wilson further sobriety tests at the hospital, which he failed. He let troopers draw his blood and blew into a Breathalyzer. The result: 0.234. The legal limit for driving is .08.

He told troopers he’d had three drinks at the Alpine Inn in Sutton before driving home.

“Wilson stated he only remembered coming down the hill and then he was in the hospital,” Frederick wrote.

Frederick also talked to a woman who had been driving behind Jakits before the crash. She told the trooper that she’d lost track of the taillights of the Mitsubishi just before the crash, then saw the Ford’s headlights right in front of her.

“(She) stated the Ford was traveling in the wrong lane of travel as it approached her,” Frederick wrote.

After the wreck she stopped to check on the Ford and on Jakits in the Mitsubishi. She said when she checked on Wilson she also smelled booze.

Frederick also checked on Jakits. The last paragraph of the papers he filed reads: “I was informed Jakits sustained a broken femur, other broken bones, lacerations and a brain bleed. Jakits did not regain consciousness and was being assisted in his breathing. Jakits was transported to Anchorage for further medical condition. At this point he is considered in critical condition.”

In addition to drunken driving, Wilson was charged with felony assault. At the time of the wreck he had also been wanted on a warrant with an original charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility without a bail amount set. As of Monday evening he was still incarcerated.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.