Glennallen State Troopers, Valdez Police and Ems responded to a two vehicle crash at mile 53.7 at 2:23 pm on Friday.

When they arrived on the scene, they found that one of the drivers involved had been killed in the accident. Patrick Mullen, age 29, of Glennallen was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Their initial investigation found that Mullen was driving southbound on the Richardson, in a 2006 Toyota truck, when he lost control of his vehicle and it began fishtailing and crossed over into the northbound lane. That was when he was struck by an oncoming vehicle driven by 37-year-old Ronald Wilkinson of Valdez as he was moving north in his 2008 Dodge Nitro. The Nitro struck the truck just behind the driver door.

The truck rolled an undetermined number of times and came to a rest upside down. The Dodge continued on, striking the berm along the northbound lane before coming to a stop.

The front seat passenger in the Nitro, Shannon Keithley, 37 from Valdez was found to be injured and was flown to Anchorage to be treated for what was determined to be non-life threatening injuries. The backseat passengers of that vehicle, Shatarah Keithley, age 15, Theron Deisenroth, age 6, and Caden Keithley, age 11, were transported to a hospital in Valdez for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. All passengers in the backseat were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the accident.

The accident closed one lane of the highway for several hours.

Mullen’s body was sent to the State Medical Examiner’s office in Anchorage for autopsy and next of kin were notified.

The Alaska Bureau of Highway Patrol assumed responsibility of the investigation and are continueing their investigation into the cause of the crash.