A Nikiski man is dead and two others injured after a Monday night accident on the Seward Highway near Portage.

The Soldotna Safety Communications Center got a report of a vehicle crash near milepost 81 just before 7 p.m. Monday that had left two people hurt and one still trapped in a vehicle, according to an Alaska State Troopers online dispatch. Soldotna and Seward area troopers responded along with the Anchorage Fire Department, and closed the highway down to one lane while they investigated, according to the dispatch.

Kevin Hammond, 27, was found to have been driving a 1997 Chevorlet truck southbound on the highway “when he crossed the center line, went into the opposite ditch hitting a power pole and flipping the vehicle,” troopers wrote.

“Hammond was later extricated from the vehicle and pronounced dead,” they wrote.

The State Medical Examiner’s Office also responded to the scene of the crash. Hammond’s family has been notified.

His two passengers, 21-year-old Dominic Ronellenfitch of Kenai and 22-year-old Jonah Rosado of Nikiski, were taken to a hospital in Anchorage to be treated for non-life threatening injuries, according to the dispatch.

The highway was reopened around 12:30 a.m.

-Staff report