Alaska State Troopers and state Department of Transportation workers recovered the bodies of two people Friday found dead in a snowbound vehicle on the Steese Highway at Eagle Summit. According to a trooper dispatch, the two were reported to have left Fairbanks on Tuesday headed for Circle.
DOT spokesperson John Perreault says a road crew from an area maintenance station headed up Eagle Summit in stormy conditions Wednesday morning and found three vehicles. Two of the vehicles were still running, but a third was buried in the snow, and the crew got no response when they knocked on the windows or tried the doors.
Perreault says the crew left to help the two other vehicles off the summit and then returned to check the third again.
“They couldn’t see inside,” he said. “The windows were frosted and tinted, and so they cleared the passenger doors. They even tried to pry them open.”
Perreault says the crew came off the mountain about six hours after first locating the vehicle Wednesday morning.
A State Trooper dispatch says they responded that evening and broke a window to get in and found two people dead inside.
“Because the weather I’m told at that time was 60 mile an hour winds, the Trooper and the DOT personnel came down off the summit and had to wait for the weather to clear up. And the vehicle was recovered with the occupants Friday morning,” Perreault said.
The Trooper dispatch says the bodies were transported to Fairbanks for identification and would then go to the state medical examiner for autopsy, adding that no foul play is suspected.
Strong winds are common in the Eagle Summit area, and the DOT has gates to close the highway when conditions warrant. Perreault says a road crew did not lower the gates after completing work around 4:30 PM Tuesday.
“They were open Tuesday night because the pass was clear when our guys came off shift,” he said.
Perreault says the DOT closed the gates Wednesday morning, as conditions had significantly worsened.
“And so traffic had gone over Tuesday night before they had come back on shift to make a determination,” he said.
Perreault says the incident and response will undergo review.
“Anytime tragedies like this happen, we want to make sure that we did everything we could, and we’ll be sure to put those sort of decisions through a process of review and to make sure we’re enabling our staff to protect the public as best they can,” he said.
Perreault encourages drivers to check weather reports and Alaska 511 for conditions, and to let someone know where they’re headed and be prepared with sufficient fuel, emergency supplies and equipment.
