Official reports show atypical week on Valley roads

WASILLA — Judging by police reports, last week was far from your typical week for traffic accidents.

Three somewhat unusual crashes — none of which resulted in injuries — showed up in local and state police logs Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The first came Jan. 25 in Palmer at S. Gulkana St. near Fireweed Ave. Steven Knox, 53, a city contractor working on snow removal, knocked down a power line with his dump truck.

“The guy had his box up and didn’t put it down quick enough and drove into the wire,” said Palmer Police Department Cmdr. Tom Remaley.

Police estimate the damaged caused at $3,000. No one was hurt.

Then Wednesday, also in Palmer on the Glenn Highway near north Inner Springer Loop, two cars hit what police describe as “a large, frozen block of sand.” Remaley said it’s not 100 percent clear where the sand came from.

“We think it fell off of a Department of Transportation truck,” he said. “The first vehicle sees it and swerves out of the way and then the second vehicle tries to and hits it,” and then a third vehicle also hit it, Remaley said.

The two drivers who hit the sand were David Moyer, 43, of Seward and Virginia E. Spreen, 87, of Wasilla. No one was injured. Remaley said Spreen’s vehicle got the worst of it.

“She ended up with a flat tire and officer (Luke) Szipsky changed her tire for her,” Remaley said.

Both vehicles were drivable.

Probably the most dramatic of the three crashes came on Thursday and was recounted in an Alaska State Trooper press release.

Just after 9 p.m., troopers were sent to Old Glenn Highway and McKechnie Loop. Jason Hunt, 20, of Palmer had been northbound in a 2005 Ford Focus when a dog ran out in front of him.

At the same time, Charles Neher-Overton was southbound driving a 2006 Ford F-350. Hunt hit the brakes and started sliding on the ice, missing the dog but winding up in Neher-Overton’s lane where the two vehicles collided head-on. That would be a pretty standard crash, except for what happened next.

“The impact caused the engine of Hunt’s vehicle to become disengaged from the frame; it came to rest approximately 80 feet from the area of impact, along the tree line,” according to the AST report.

Luckily, no one was hurt in the crash. Both vehicles were totaled.

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