Alaska News

Woman killed in high-speed ATV rollover, troopers say

A 30-year-old woman died in a high-speed ATV crash early Tuesday morning in the Western Alaska village of Alakanuk, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Lois Chikigak, of Alakanuk, lost control of the vehicle on a village roadway and was severely hurt when the ATV rolled over her, troopers said. She was pronounced dead at a local health clinic a short time later.

The death was reported to troopers in St. Marys and Emmonak at 1:43 a.m. "We believe it was reported very soon after it occurred," trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters wrote in an email.

Troopers are investigating the crash and suspect alcohol might have been involved. "There was an odor of alcohol about her person at the time of death," Peters wrote.

Chikigak's body will be sent to the state Medical Examiner's Office in Anchorage for an autopsy, the agency said in a report posted online.

Alakanuk is a village of about 700 people on a major channel of the Yukon River, 15 miles from the Bering Sea.

Twitter updates: twitter.com/adn_kylehopkins. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or email him at khopkins@adn.com.

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By KYLE HOPKINS

khopkins@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins is special projects editor of the Anchorage Daily News. He was the lead reporter on the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lawless" project and is part of an ongoing collaboration between the ADN and ProPublica's Local Reporting Network. He joined the ADN in 2004 and was also an editor and investigative reporter at KTUU-TV. Email khopkins@adn.com

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