2 days Ago By Dana Hatherly
On Aug. 2, 2024, a crash on the Alaska Highway south of Whitehorse left Yukon government deputy minister Michael Prochazka of the Environment department dead and Minister Nils Clarke badly hurt. Many Yukoners, including the three territorial party leaders, mourned the loss of Prochazka and wished a full recovery to Clarke.
The two were leaving a work event when the collision occurred. The Yukon RCMP confirmed the two-vehicle collision that closed the Alaska Highway in the vicinity of the McClintock River Bridge late in the afternoon on Aug. 2, 2024, also killed the driver of one of the vehicles.
Police said a southbound vehicle hit another vehicle entering the highway. The driver of the vehicle that was struck was killed and the passenger was injured. Prochazka was driving and Clarke was in the passenger seat.
Clarke is also the MLA for Riverdale North. He stayed on as MLA following the crash, although ministers John Streicker and Richard Mostyn temporarily covered his ministerial files on Environment and Highways and Public Works respectively. No charges have been laid in relation to the above-mentioned crash.
Among the deadly crashes in 2024, this past year saw four fatal collisions over the span of two weeks – the deadliest two-week period on Yukon roads in the past 10 years, according to the Department of Highways and Public Works. RCMP have arrested the driver of a vehicle allegedly involved in a hit and run that killed a cyclist along the Alaska Highway in Rabbit’s Foot Canyon on June 13, 2024. The vehicle that police said hit the cyclist did not remain on the scene.
The Yukon government dropped the speed limit on the road in Rabbit’s Foot Canyon from 90 kilometres to 70 kilometres per hour after the deadly vehicle-on-bike crash. Also in the wake of the crash was a memorial bike ride through the area attended by hundred of cyclists on June 27. The deadly days on Yukon highways in the summer also saw a crash north of Teslin that claimed the lives of two women and the death of a motorcyclist on the Dempster Highway.
Later on, in September, a man from Arizona died after the truck he was driving crashed into the Yukon River near the Lewes River Bridge south of Whitehorse..
