Saint Mary's woman, 42, dies pinned under an ATV in Pitkas Point

Eileen Prince, 42, of Saint Mary's, died Saturday night after being pinned under an ATV in Pitkas Point, the Alaska State Troopers said.

Troopers were notified at 10:42 p.m. on Aug. 15. Initial responders removed the machine and began life-saving efforts, according to the dispatch. Prince was declared deceased. Her body was sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office for autopsy, and next of kin have been notified. The dispatch was posted under C Detachment, which covers western Alaska.

A review of trooper daily dispatches finds four ATV deaths in Alaska this year. Prince's is the fourth, and the first outside Southcentral Alaska. On May 30, troopers reported that 42-year-old Anchorage resident Brandon Ilutsik was found unresponsive and trapped under his ATV near Friday Creek by the Knik River. On June 17, a side-by-side overturned near mile 21 East End Road outside Homer, killing 33-year-old Homer resident Iosif Martishev. On June 18, a side-by-side rolled at Jim Creek near Sutton, killing a ten-year-old, and troopers arrested the driver on charges including criminally negligent homicide.

The Pitkas Point dispatch does not state whether Prince was riding, who the initial responders were, or whether any investigation is open.

The department's own description of the region explains what an ATV is there. The Association of Village Council Presidents covers 48 tribes in 56 Alaska Native villages across 59,000 square miles, and the department writes that "all travel within the region is by small plane, ATV, boats during the ice-free part of summer and snowmachines in winter." AVCP says more than 27,000 residents' access to each other and the rest of Alaska depends on aircraft, river travel, ice roads or frozen tundra.

State epidemiologists counted 71 ATV fatalities statewide from 2019 through 2024, alongside 4,421 ATV-related emergency department visits over the same period. Every account here comes from state agency records, and no one from Saint Mary's or Pitkas Point appears in them. The autopsy is the record that would establish how Prince died.