The surviving driver in a head-on collision near North Pole last year is now facing state charges in the crash, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Online court records list Eddie Ahyakak, 38, as charged with criminally negligent homicide in a case first filed Tuesday. The date of the offense -- July 29, 2014 -- is the same as that of a wreck in which Alaska State Troopers said Ahyakak's Ford F-350 pickup crossed the centerline of the Old Richardson Highway at Mile 12, colliding with a Chevrolet Suburban driven by 59-year-old Ernest Ford.
Ford died at the scene, while Ahyakak was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for treatment of serious injuries. Troopers closed the highway for about five hours as they investigated the crash.
The News-Miner said a plea deal on the homicide charge had been reached between Ahyakak and the state but that Ahyakak's attorney declined to discuss it Wednesday.
Ahyakak, a former contestant on the National Geographic Channel reality show "Ultimate Survival Alaska," won the 2014 season's final challenge with teammates Sean Burch and three-time Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race victor Dallas Seavey. At the time of the crash, he was also a member of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp.'s board of directors and worked as a refinery operator for Petro Star Inc.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the corporate board on which Ahyakak served at the time of the crash. It has been updated.