Surviving Wild Alaska Constestant Charged In Fatal Wreck

My story last year with now three-time Iditarod winner Dallas Seavey was one of my favorites projects. I enjoyed Seavey’s candor and admired his skills as both a dog musher and his overall outdoorsman skills. Seavey even teamed with two other men, Sean Burch and Eddie Ahyakak, to win the National Geographic Series  Ultimate Survival Alaska in 2014. But tragedy offscreen struck when Ahyakak was involved in a July 2014 car accident on the Old Richardson Highway. The other driver was killed in the wreck, and Alaska State Troopers announced Wednesday charges will be filed against Ahyakak.

From the Alaska Dispatch via the Fairbanks News-Miner:

Online court records list Eddie Ahyakak, 38, as charged with criminally negligent homicide in a case first filed Tuesday. The date of the offense — July 29, 2014 — is the same as that of a wreck in which Alaska State Troopers said Ahyakak’s Ford F-350 pickup crossed the center line of the Old Richardson Highway at Mile 12, colliding with a Chevrolet Suburban driven by 59-year-old Ernest Ford.

Ford died at the scene, while Ahyakak was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital for treatment of serious injuries. Troopers closed the highway for about five hours as they investigated the crash.

The show has endured multiple terrible moments. In May, former cast member Jimmy Gaydos (Gojdics) was found dead from to a gunshot in his Fairbanks home.