The driver of a tour bus that caused a fatal crash on the Seward Highway in 2015 has been indicted by an Anchorage grand jury. Sixty-three-year-old Charles Curtis of Wasilla was charged with one count of criminally negligent homicide and two counts of assault in the second degree. In an announcement, the district attorney also added nine counts of fourth degree assault. The indictment was announced Friday.
The charges stem from an afternoon accident on July 31, 2015, when the Premier Alaska Tours bus Curtis was driving northbound rear-ended the third in a line of trucks with fifth-wheel trailers waiting to turn into the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center at the head of Turnagain Arm. His bus careened into southbound traffic and hit a GMC Yukon pickup driven by John Zollner, who was declared dead at the scene. Zollner's wife and adult daughter were transported to Anchorage by ground and air ambulance, respectively.
Curtis himself and another person were also taken away by ambulance.
The accident, on a Friday afternoon, closed both lanes of the only road to the Kenai Peninsula for 10 hours.