Troopers chase car to Talkeetna

PALMER — At the end of a 69-mile car chase, both a stolen SUV and an Alaska State Trooper patrol vehicle were upended after hitting the same icy patch early Wednesday morning near Talkeetna.

The 17-year-old suspect was arrested, but no one was injured in either crash.

According to an AST press statement, the chase began at 3:40 a.m., Feb. 5 when troopers tried to pull over a black 1997 Toyota RAV4 at Mile 36, Parks Highway — the Trunk Road exit.

Troopers said they wanted to cite the driver for “speeding, failure to dim headlights and erratic driving.”

But the SUV didn’t stop, instead speeding up the highway.

“Speeds varied throughout the incident, but were about 80 mph-plus,” AST spokeswoman Megan Peters wrote in an email.

At Mile 99 — the Talkeetna Spur Road junction — the RAV4 hit a patch of ice, slid into the ditch and rolled, landing on its roof, Peters writes.

“There were four Trooper vehicles involved in the pursuit. One of the Trooper vehicles that was assisting in the pursuit also hit the same patch of ice and began to slide. Instead of running into other vehicles, the Trooper was able to direct his patrol vehicle toward the opposite ditch. When he went into the ditch, his vehicle rolled and ended up on its top as well,” Peters writes.

The RAV4 had been reported stolen in Palmer just minutes prior to the pursuit. Since the driver is underage, troopers did not release his name or any identifying information about him.

He was jailed at the Mat-Su Youth Facility. The charges he faces are vehicle theft, eluding arrest, reckless driving and driving without a valid operator’s license.

The chase is the second long-distance pursuit of a stolen SUV in the Valley in as many weeks. On Jan. 25, Kevin Ashton, 28, of Anchorage, led troopers and Wasilla police on a 50-mile chase that circled the Valley.

Ashton’s route took him from Walmart on Seward Meridian Parkway to Palmer-Fishhook Road and back into Wasilla before he turned around and headed toward Anchorage, finally running out of gas in Chugiak, where Anchorage police made the collar. The Jeep Ashton was driving turned out to have belonged to the Anchorage Boys and Girls Club.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.