The woman passenger in the second vehicle, a small red Toyota sedan, was hospitalized with serious injuries, police said. The driver of the Ford SUV, Lori Phillips, 55, suffered what police characterized as non life-threatening injuries.
Phillips has two driving under the influence charges -- one from March this year -- and other traffic infractions, according to court records. She had not been charged in Thursday's case pending the outcome of the investigation, police said.
Police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said Phillips was reported as a possible drunken driver after she left a hair salon along Arctic Boulevard at 5:29 p.m., though it was not immediately clear why the staff thought she was intoxicated.
Police put out a locate on the vehicle but didn't know which way it went and were unable to find it.
A state Department of Transportation worker near the vehicle weight scales south of Potter Marsh saw the vehicle driving erratically and reported it to police at 5:49 p.m., Parker said. One minute later, it was involved in the fatal crash.
Police said it appeared Phillips had turned around and headed north back into town when, just feet north of the Old Seward Highway intersection, the SUV crossed the center line and collided head-on with the sedan.
The man driving the sedan died on the scene and the woman in the front seat was extricated from the wreckage and taken to a hospital.
"The passenger compartment is somewhat crushed on the driver's side, but the whole front end of the vehicle is impacted inward," Parker said.
The sedan was knocked off the road and at the scene Thursday night was hidden from sight by tall brown grass in a ditch of the marsh. The Ford SUV, which had been northbound, sat facing south in the road, its front end crunched. Shattered glass extended behind it in the southbound lane, glittering on the dark pavement in a bath of flashing blue and red police lights.
The accident closed the stretch of Seward Highway from its intersection with the Old Seward to Rabbit Creek Road. Seward-bound traffic was being diverted along the Old Seward while police investigated the scene, a process that was expected to take three or four hours.
The death brings to nine the number of people killed on the highway since May. Two of the deaths took place in Anchorage and the rest were between Potter Marsh and Turnagain Pass.
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