A woman driving alone on the Richardson Highway Wednesday evening was killed when her small car crashed into a moose, Alaska State Troopers said.
The entire top of her vehicle, a blue 2006 Acura, was ripped off, the trooper report said.
Troopers identified the woman as Andrea Lee Conley.
Officers responded at about 7:30 p.m. to a report of the crash at Mile 75.5 Richardson Highway, near the Tonsina River Lodge.
They found one vehicle occupant, a woman who had suffered severe head injuries and showed no signs of life. Troopers tried to resuscitate her but couldn't. She was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m., the report said. Her body was being transported to the state medical examiner's office in Anchorage.
"The roadway was perfect and straight," trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said in an email. The woman was headed south when her car hit the moose and went off the highway into a west-side ditch. There, the car hit a big bump and went airborne for about 30 feet, Peters wrote. It came to rest about 60 to 70 feet off the highway on a flat area. The impact with the moose appeared to have ripped off the car's roof.
Reach Lisa Demer at ldemer@adn.com or 257-4390.
By LISA DEMER