John "Zak" Kaercher, 29, was critically injured Tuesday night about 10:10 at I Street and Third Avenue, police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said. Kaercher was being towed behind a Toyota Tacoma when he lost control and hit his head on the pavement, then began convulsing, Parker said.
Police were not investigating the matter as a crime, Parker said.
"There is a citation that can be issued for riding on the outside of the vehicle, but I don't know if there's a citation for towing a person," Parker said. "It's just a stupid, dangerous thing to do."
Kaercher is the owner of Zak's Boardroom, a skate shop at 715 W. Fourth Ave., and the indoor Phaze One Skate Park in South Anchorage at 9310 Gambell St. He has a degree in business finance and loved to skate and snowboard, said his father, Dale Kaercher.
Dale Kaercher disputed the police account of the crash, saying his son apparently just lost his balance skating on the roughly three-block trip home from work. Kaercher was on life support Wednesday but was donating his organs and would be dead in the next day, his father said.
"He was an ambitious kid. He got that business going, and he had the indoor skate park he developed last year -- the only one in Anchorage," Kaercher said. "He was pretty on top of it."
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