P-W Highway crash injures four children

November 13, 2005

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - A three-vehicle crash Friday afternoon injured a mother, her four young children, a teenager and her father, and closed the Palmer-Wasilla Highway for about three hours near its intersection with Skip Circle, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Misty Fisher, 26, of Wasilla, was stopped in the eastbound lane waiting to make a left turn onto Mayflower Court at about 3:50 p.m., according to troopers. Fisher had her 2-year-old, twin 5-year-olds and 6-year-old seat-belted inside her 1998 Ford minivan, Trooper Ben Mank said Saturday.

Ricky Hanson, 52, of Wasilla, was driving a 1979 GMC pickup truck east on the highway and struck the back of Fisher's van, pushing it in front of a westbound 1994 Dodge minivan driven by Robert Cook Sr., 46, of Palmer, troopers said. Cook's 18-year-old daughter was riding with him, Mank said. The vans collided, head-on.

Four ambulances from Central Mat-Su Fire Department, Palmer and Meadow Lakes arrived, and took seven people to the hospital, said Jack Krill Jr., chief of Central Mat-Su, which sent a fire engine to help extricate people.

The ambulances whisked Fisher and her children and Cook and his 18-year-old daughter to Valley Hospital, according to troopers. Everyone was wearing seat belts when the collisions occurred, the report said.

A Valley Hospital nursing supervisor said Saturday that six of the injured were treated and released.

Mank said Saturday that Fisher's 6-year-old remained in the hospital's intensive-care unit, but was considered to be in stable condition.

Troopers estimated damage to the vehicles at about $12,000.

Traffic detoured around the wreck site for about three hours. There weren't enough officers on hand to direct traffic in both directions, due to heavy traffic on the Veterans Day holiday and many other calls, Trooper Sgt. Kathy Peterson said Saturday. Westbound traffic moved onto Mayflower Court, but drivers heading east had to figure out the detour for themselves, many driving up to the site and then turning around.

The wreck was the eighth Central Mat-Su responded to Friday, and the second on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.