Anchorage Daily News

An out-of-control SUV plowed through a busy intersection near Merrill Field on Friday morning, smashing into three vehicles and injuring three people, including one who remains hospitalized in critical condition.

The driver of the wayward Ford Expedition, Earl Stidham, 78, said he was unable to stop as he was heading west on the Glenn Highway at about 10 a.m., approaching its intersection with Mountain View Drive.

Reached at home in Palmer, Stidham said he had been at work in the Mat-Su and was heading to Post Road with a colleague to pick up a bus. About 100 yards before the impact, he stepped on the brake to slow for the traffic light and realized he wasn't stopping, he said.

"I was braking down and it seemed like the pedal stuck -- the gas pedal," he said.

Traffic ahead was stopped at the light, and Stidham slammed into it at about 65 mph, according to police.

The blue SUV pulverized the tail end of a Chevy Malibu driven by Conor Daugharty, 22, and tossed the vehicle into the southbound lanes of Mountain View, police spokeswoman Anita Shell said.

Daugharty had to be extricated from his vehicle, which was totaled, and he needed a respirator to keep breathing, police said. He was taken to Alaska Regional Hospital in critical condition, and officials there said he was still listed as critical late Friday afternoon.

The SUV Stidham was driving, owned by Chugach Alaska Corp., continued on after the initial impact, spinning northbound and sideswiping a Ford F250 pickup driven by Tommy Oswald, 50.

Stidham's SUV went another 100 feet north and struck head-on a southbound Pontiac Grand Am driven by Hung Ha, 36, before stopping.

Oswald sustained a sprained ankle; his passenger wasn't hurt. The pickup truck was driven away from the scene, Shell said.

Stidham and his passenger, Franklin Simmons, 76, were uninjured. Ha's nose was broken, Shell said.

The collision forced the temporary closure of some westbound lanes of the Glenn Highway and left the southbound lanes of Mountain View partially closed for hours while police investigated the wreck and removed the vehicles.

At the scene Friday afternoon, police traffic investigator Rick Steiding said it appeared from witness statements that the accelerator pedal had gotten stuck but that the matter was still under investigation.

"Very rarely do we have a wreck like this where the first statement that somebody makes was that there is a defect with the car and that's what caused it," Steiding said. "So in cases like that, the times where we do have that, it's something we look into and usually they're telling the truth. There was something wrong."

Investigators won't know for sure until they are able to examine the vehicle, he said.

In the event a vehicle's accelerator does stick, the driver should first put the transmission in neutral and then hit the brakes -- it might not be possible to overpower the engine by hitting the brakes alone, he said.

Asked if he tried putting the SUV in neutral, Stidham said he did.

"Everything. Up and down, back and forth, anyway it could go," Stidham said. "That's the first time it's ever happened to me."

Shell said Stidham was not charged with anything Friday. Court records indicate Stidham received a speeding ticket in 1999 but has no other history here.

Officials from Chugach Alaska did not return several messages seeking comment Friday.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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