Man in critical condition after Church Road collision

WASILLA — A head-on collision on Church Road on Monday sent two drivers to the hospital, one of whom was charged with drunken driving.

Wasilla Police Chief Mike Hughes said the call to respond to the accident came in at around 5:01 p.m. He said George Karn was the driver charged with DUI. He said investigators hadn’t yet made a firm ruling as to whether Karn was also at fault in the crash.

The other driver’s name was John Robb. His oldest sister, Leslie Jolliff, said from her home in Texas that Robb had regained consciousness Thursday morning. She said all this with the relief evident in her voice; she said responders on scene that day didn’t think her brother was going to make it.

She said Robb has a wife and three kids but police didn’t know that right away. They had a tough time tracking anyone down.

“A sergeant went to my brother’s home, the neighbor came out and he gave the sergeant my mother’s phone number,” Jolliff said. “He called my mother and told my mother about it. It was 24 hours later.”

Which, she said, means her brother spent a full day by himself in the hospital, a situation she wouldn’t recommend for anyone and which she said is a reminder that people should keep next-of-kin information handy.

“Put contact information in your wallet or your purse,” she said. “Put your drug list in your wallet or your purse.”

Central Mat-Su Fire Department Assistant Chief Michael Keenan said that of the two, Robb was the more severely injured. His passenger sedan had crumped in around him when it collided with Karn’s pickup.

“Twenty-nine minutes was our extrication time,” Keenan said. “That’s actually a real good time from the time of dispatch but it was a very in-depth extrication, a lot of metal crushed around the gentleman.”

Rescuers had to cut off the roof and door and then also remove the dashboard and instrument panel. Once he was out, Keenan said, Robb was put in a helicopter and flown to Anchorage.

As for Karn; there was some talk over emergency band radios that he might have been thrown from his pickup. Keenan couldn’t say for sure if that was true.

“He was laying on the ground and to be honest with you I don’t know how he got there, if he was thrown from the vehicle or if he just got out and laid down there,” Keenan said.

Whatever the case, medics got him into an ambulance and took him to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

Robb’s family has set up an account to help with costs associated with the accident. The account is at the Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union for the benefit of John Howard Robb, account number 132009.

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