One person was killed and eight others injured in a head-on collision Monday afternoon at Mile 88 on the Sterling Highway, according to Central Emergency Services.

The crash took place on a slushy, two-lane strip of highway between Soldotna and Sterling just after 3:20 p.m., said Terry Bookey, an engineer paramedic with CES.

Two vehicles -- a 2006 Dodge pickup and a 2004 Ford Windstar -- collided and forced both lanes of the highway closed for at least four hours, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Six people were in the Ford -- two adults and four teenaged children, Bookey said. The woman riding in the front passenger seat was killed in the crash, and a girl in the back seat was ejected from the vehicle and seriously injured, he said.

The male driver was critically injured and two of the juveniles were seriously injured and needed to be extricated from the vehicle -- one of them was medevacked to Anchorage, Bookey said. A fourth youth was not seriously injured.

Two men and a young boy were in the Dodge. The passenger needed to be extricated but none of the three was critically injured, Bookey said.

The names and relationships of the people involved were not immediately available.

The Sterling Highway remained closed at 7:30 p.m. as crews worked to remove the wreckage and troopers began their investigation.

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