2 people dead after multi-vehicle crash near Whitehorse

RCMP say two people are dead after a car collided with a motorcycle on the Alaska Highway south of Whitehorse on Sunday. 

Whitehorse RCMP responded to a three-vehicle collision around 3:40 p.m. on Sunday at the Lewes River Bridge, also known as the Blue Bridge. 

A statement from the Yukon Coroner's Service says it appears that an eastbound vehicle tried to overtake another vehicle heading in the same direction. Both vehicles made contact and lost control, with the overtaking vehicle swerving into the westbound lane and colliding with an oncoming motorcycle.

The driver of the motorcycle died at the scene. The coroner's service has identified him as 43-year-old Travis Richard Adams of Whitehorse.

A woman who was a rear-seat passenger in the vehicle was also pronounced dead at the scene. She has been identified as 47-year-old Nicole Sanderson of Winnipeg.

RCMP say the driver and a second adult passenger were transported to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries on Sunday.

The coroner's service says autopsies will be conducted July 9 at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital in Abbotsford, B.C.

The highway was closed in both directions until around midnight, police said, with traffic from Whitehorse redirected at the Carcross cutoff near Marsh Lake. 

The Yukon Coroner's Service says it continues its investigation with assistance from Whitehorse RCMP.