Skip to content

Motorcyclist, car passenger dead after crash on Alaska Highway near blue bridge

Motorcycle rider, 43, from Whitehorse and car passenger, 47, from Manitoba pronounced dead at scene
22050898_web1_200708_YKN_news_crash-blue-bridge-wide_1
A police officer places evidence markers on the Alaska Highway near the blue bridge at the scene of a three-vehicle collision on July 5. A 43-year-old motorcycle rider from Whitehorse and a 47-year-old car passenger were pronounced dead at the scene. (Jakcie Hong/Yukon News)

A Whitehorse motorcycle rider and a car passenger from Winnipeg are dead after a crash on the Alaska Highway near the Lewes River Bridge, commonly called the blue bridge, on July 5.

Whitehorse RCMP were called to the scene at 3:41 p.m., Yukon RCMP said in a press release July 6, after a collision involving a motorcycle and two other vehicles.

In a separate press release, the Yukon Coroner’s Service said the preliminary investigation suggested an eastbound car was trying to overtake another vehicle on the highway.

“The two vehicles made contact and it appeared that both vehicles lost control and the overtaking vehicle swerved across the westbound lane, colliding with an oncoming motorcycle,” the press release says.

Travis Richard Adams, a 42-year-old motorcycle rider from Whitehorse, and Nicole Sanderson, a 47-year-old from Winnipeg who was a passenger in the overtaking car’s rear seat, both died at the scene.

The driver of the car, as well as another adult passenger, were taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The other vehicle was carrying “at least three individuals,” Yukon RCMP spokesperson Alma Edwards wrote in an email, none of whom were injured in the crash.

The Alaska Highway was closed in both directions form 4 p.m. to just before midnight, with traffic coming from Whitehorse diverted at the Carcross cutoff.

Whitehorse RCMP, along with M Division Traffic Services and the Yukon Coroner’s Service, are continuing their investigations.

Autopsies are scheduled to take place at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital on July 9.

Contact Jackie Hong at jackie.hong@yukon-news.com