In unrelated Sterling Highway car collisions Monday, two people were killed, one a resident of Clam Gulch, the other of Wisconsin.
At around 1:30 p.m., according to a dispatch from Alaska State Troopers, they were told of a collision at around Mile 100 of the Sterling Highway, close to Echo Lake Road. They found that Clam Gulch resident Joseph Alcantra, 65, had swerved off the road in a Dodge sedan and collided with trees.
The dispatch says Alcantra experienced a medical emergency while operating the vehicle, and was declared dead at the scene despite “life-saving efforts performed by good Samaritans, troopers and EMS.”
Per a second dispatch, troopers responded to another collision roughly an hour later, at 3 p.m. That collision was near Milepost 71.5, close to Peterson and Kelly Lake Campgrounds. According to posts on the troopers’ Facebook page, the road was closed in both directions for more than four hours while troopers investigated and cleared the roadway.
The dispatch says Theodore Matthew Zielicke, 57, of Wisconsin, was driving toward Soldotna in a red 1998 Ford Explorer when he crossed over the centerline and collided with a white 2022 Toyota Corolla operated by Keith Sydney Cooke, 66, of North Carolina.
“Multiple people, including both drivers, suffered serious injury,” the dispatch says.
One of the passengers in Zielicke’s car, Wanda Yvonne Cook, 59, also of Wisconsin, was pronounced dead on scene.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
