One lane of the Seward Highway near mile 81 was closed for almost six hours as investigators looked into a fatal crash at that location on Monday evening.

A call went in to troopers at 6:57 pm on Monday night reporting two injuries and a third person trapped and possibly deceased in a single vehicle crash.

The Anchorage Fire Department as well as troopers from Seward and Soldotna responded to the scene. The driver of the 1997 Chevy truck, 27-year-old Kevin Hammond of Nikiski, was extricated from the overturned vehicle and pronounced deceased at the scene.

Two of the truck’s passengers, identified as Dominic Ronellenfitch, age 21 of Kenai, and Jonah Rosado, age 22, of Nikiski, were transported to an Anchorage hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Troopers closed down one lane of the highway, as they conducted their investigation utilizing Total Station equipment. The investigation determined that had been traveling southbound, when he crossed over the centerline, went into the ditch on the opposite side of the road, hit a power pole, flipping the vehicle.

The State Medical Examiner’s office responded to the scene and took possession of Hammond’s remains. His next of kin were notified of his death.

The highway was fully reopened by 30 minutes past midnight.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

  crash, death, deceased, dominic ronellenfitch, fatality, investigation, jonah rosado, kevin hammond, nikiski, seward highway