Troopers ID 2 killed in icy Seward Highway crash near Hope junction

Two people were killed in a Saturday morning crash on an icy stretch of the Seward Highway near the Hope junction, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Three others were left with non-life-threatening injuries in the collision between two Toyotas – a Tacoma pickup and a small SUV called a RAV4 – troopers said in an online dispatch.

Presence Bissonette, 37, of Seward, was driving north in the RAV4 when 47-year-old Neng Thao of Anchorage, who was driving south, lost control of the Tacoma, "crossed the center line and struck the RAV4 head-on," troopers said.

Bissonette – whose Facebook page identified her as a technician at the Seward library – and Kaying Lee, 42, who was a passenger in Thao's truck, both died at the scene, according to troopers.

Thao and two other passengers in the truck had "non-life-threatening injuries," troopers said, and were taken to an Anchorage hospital by helicopter and ambulances.

Troopers learned of the crash, at Mile 53.8 just south of the Hope junction, at 7:15 a.m. The highway was closed until about 11 a.m., when one lane was opened, and it was fully reopened at 12:30 p.m.

Other crashes were reported Saturday morning in the Mat-Su, where some drivers seemed to have trouble negotiating one of the first frosts of the year for Southcentral Alaska.

Anchorage Assemblywoman Amy Demboski, in a Facebook post, said she witnessed four crashes on the Glenn Highway bridge over the Knik River – where she'd gone to help her son who'd spun out and banged up his own truck – in a brief span Saturday morning.

Demboski's son, she said in a text message, said he saw at least six people spin out on the bridge before she arrived.