An Anchorage man has been indicted on two counts of manslaughter in connection with a fatal Chena Hot Springs Road accident.
AÂ Fairbanks grand jury handed down the indictments on April 23 against Darrell J. Burton, 31, in connection with a July 15, 2020, collision on Chena Hot Springs Road. The collision left two dead and sent two others to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
The accident happened when Burton was passing another vehicle on Chena Hot Springs Road in his Dodge Durango, hit a frost heave, and lost control of his car, according to Alaska State Troopers. The Durango collided with a Toyota RAV4 in the oncoming lane.
The state reported 13 more deaths from the past couple of months and a surge in new cases over the weekend, with Fairbanks leading the case count and lagging in vaccinations.
âWe are definitely seeing an increase in cases in Fairbanks and the Interior,â said Dr. Mark Simon, an emergency physician at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. âAnd we are seeing it both in the numbers that we get from the state and our local public health officials, and then weâre seeing it at the hospital.â
The Fairbanks North Star Borough saw 102 cases on Saturday alone and is among the highest numbers since the beginning of December. Based on the weekly case average, test positivity rate and hospitalizations, the borough is now in a high-risk zone, according to the borough website. The three-day average for hospitalized Covid patients doubled since last week and is now at 10 people.
Two teenagers were taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital Saturday night after being shot by another teenager at a party, according to Alaska State Troopers.
About 11:30 p.m. Saturday, troopers responded to a report of an underage bonfire party with roughly 50 people in attendance near 9 Mile Richardson Highway, a trooper dispatch stated. The troopers heard gunshots as they arrived and discovered that two juvenile males had been shot in their abdomens, according to the trooper dispatch. The teenage victims were transported to Fairbanks for emergency surgery.
As of Monday, the victims are still hospitalized but are stable, according to Department of Public Safety public information officer Gretchen Weiss-Brooks.
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While the statewide case rate stayed stable last week, the numbers of COVID-19 disease in Fairbanks and North Pole shot up. On Wednesday, 111 cases were reported between the two towns. Outside the Fairbanks North Star Borough, other Interior communities surged as well.
Dr. Mark Simon works in the emergency department at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
I can tell you that everyone who works in the emergency department is saying ‘Wow, there’s a lot of Covid coming in.’ Everyone who is working in the hospital taking care of patients, is saying, ‘Wow, we have a lot of Covid in the hospital right now.’ This is at the level we had at our highest peak in the past.”
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