1 dead, 4 injured in Parks Highway head-on collision

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A man died and four people were injured Tuesday in a head-on crash on the Parks Highway, authorities said.

The man killed was a passenger in a southbound car that crashed with a northbound pickup about 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of Big Lake, state troopers said.

A woman driving the car suffered life-threatening injuries. She was flown by helicopter to a hospital.

A man was driving the pickup and had two children in the back seat. All three were taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Troopers said an ambulance travelling on the highway came upon the wreck shortly before noon.

The man and woman in the small car could not be immediately extracted. The man died before he could be pulled from the wreckage, troopers said.

The highway was closed for several hours. Wreckage blocked the roadway and the closure allowed responders to tend to the injured, troopers said.

Names and hometowns of those involved were not immediately released and updates on the conditions of the injured were not known.