Seth Waldo’s truck after a collision on the Al-Can on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, near the Beaver Creek crossing. Waldo was initially presumed dead but survived with severe injuries, due in part to a long-haul trucker who stopped to render aid.
A 25-year-old Haines man has been hospitalized in Fairbanks since a Feb. 13 collision with an 18-wheeler that left him with several broken bones and extensive internal injuries.
Seth Waldo was headed to Anchorage for a new job, his Toyota pickup crammed with his belongings, when he collided with a Lynden Transport truck about 15 minutes from the Beaver Creek border crossing. Troopers got a report of the collision just after 1:20 p.m.
His truck was demolished and, at first, it was assumed that Waldo had died. At least that’s what was relayed to staff at the border crossing who warned Canadian truck driver Tristan Vogl about the accident as he was crossing through.
“One of the agents got a phone call while I was in there. They ran my paperwork and said I was good to go. Then the agent who was on the phone said ‘hey, just so you know, about 8-10 miles up the highway from here, there’s a fatal accident.”
Vogl, a long-haul trucker, said the agent told him to try and go around it if he could. Vogl got underway and eventually came around a corner to the accident, fully blocking the highway. He decided to back his truck up and around the corner so that no one else would hit him.
Then, he sat in his truck for a few minutes. Vogl, who said he has first aid, CPR and AED training through the Canadian Red Cross, had his first aid kit in the truck. He got into long-haul trucking after a six-year stint as a tow truck driver during which he said he saw a lot of dead bodies, and that’s a big part of why he left that industry. He said he was apprehensive.
But eventually he made the decision to go see if anyone needed his help.
“I just wanted to make sure because I’ve heard where people are deemed dead and they’re not,” he said. “You never know until you see it for yourself, especially in that kind of remote area. Minutes are everything for people in those kinds of situations.”
First he ran into a husband and wife team who were driving the 18-wheeler.
“The wife was driving when the accident happened. She was totally distraught. He was shook up. They said they were fine but couldn’t really give me any more information,” he said. “I asked about whoever was in the truck, in the pickup. I said ‘are they OK? And the truck driver basically said, no he wasn’t. He twitched a bit but then died.”
Vogl said no police or ambulance crews had arrived on scene yet, and he wondered how they could be certain that the person in the pickup truck was dead. As he describes it, the truck was too mangled to see anyone. But, he called into the cab and said ‘are you ok?’ and didn’t get an answer. Then he asked “can you breathe?”
“That second question, I heard a faint, faint ‘no,’” Vogl said.
Waldo was alive. But Vogl couldn’t see him. The truck was crumpled, the driver’s seat headrest embedded in the steering wheel.
“For me it was shocking. I was just like.. I don’t know how this guy is alive,” he said. “It was [-13 Fahrenheit]. I don’t think he had much time.”
Vogl borrowed a prybar from the nearby truck driver and pried the door open until he could see Waldo’s hand. Then, he started moving things.
“He did have basically his entire life in the truck,” Vogl said. “I started moving all the stuff out and then I could see his hair. He wasn’t really able to move or speak. So I moved that metal bar again and I busted the driver’s seat back and pried it back and I was able to shimmy him over into the seat.”
Vogl said he did an initial assessment. There was a clear head injury. His leg was broken and maybe his arm as well. He also thought Waldo had serious internal injuries because he was spitting up blood.
“As far as medical, there was nothing any of us could really perform on the roadside there to make it any better,” he said.
So, Vogl grabbed as many blankets and jackets as he could find and wrapped the man up before making a call back to 911 to report that the pickup driver was not dead and needed a lifeflight to get him to the hospital.
Emergency response staff told him it would be awhile before anybody could get there, so Vogl settled in and for the next two hours stayed there with Waldo.
“He just wanted me to hold his hand. He wanted me to talk to him even though he was barely coherent and couldn’t really answer questions. He basically just wanted me to stand there and talk to him and ask questions. He tried his best to answer them,” Vogl said.
Vogl asked Waldo his name and age, though he couldn’t remember the latter. Then, trying to keep it light, he looked around the truck and noticed a lot of fishing gear – so he started quizzing Waldo on his adventures.
“I asked him about the last time he went fishing and his hiking adventures. The last place he went hiking. Has he fished here or there? Any question I could think of. I didn’t want to ask him questions about family, just kind of keep it light,” Vogl said. “He was conscious but just not fully coherent.”
Vogl said Waldo explained that the questioning was distracting him from his injuries.
“I would ask him questions and he’d have a spurt of pain and he’d kind of scream for a minute. He didn’t want to be wrapped up. But then at a certain moment he was so cold. I had to fight him to keep the stuff on him. He’d try to wiggle his way out and get out of the truck,” Vogl said. “I was just kind of there with him the entire time in case he didn’t make it.”
Close to two hours after Vogl got there, he said the first state trooper showed up. Did a quick assessment and then started investigating the accident. Two agents, including a licensed medic, from the border showed up too. But they all came to the same conclusion about his injuries and backed off to wait for an ambulance and medevac.
Vogl said he stayed with Waldo as rescuers showed up and cut him out of the truck, then helped load him onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.
“At that point, I wasn’t overly confident of his survival. But I knew he was in better hands. They were going to take him a couple of miles down the road to a fixed wing aircraft. Then fly him to Fairbanks,” he said.
After that, Vogl said he climbed back into his truck and eventually decided to get some thoughts out and wrote it down. Then he decided to make a post on Facebook. In it, he pointed out how crucial it is to have first aid training.
Two days later, someone messaged to ask what kind of vehicle was involved in the accident. Then messages started pouring in from family and friends of Waldo’s in Haines.
Seth Waldo at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital after he collided with an semi truck mid-move to Anchorage.
Waldo’s sister reached out and said Seth couldn’t remember what happened, so Vogl gave her all of the information he could and sent photos. She filled him in on the nature of Waldo’s injuries. Then someone sent him a number and asked him to reach out to the man’s father, Kenny Waldo.
“He thanked me for, essentially, saving his son’s life,” Vogl said. “He sure sounds like a tough guy on the phone and to hear him break down like that was very moving.”
Kenny Waldo said Wednesday that his son is recovering slowly but his injuries are extensive. He said Seth had intestinal surgery the day after the accident. He has a fractured disc in his back. He’s also got a titanium rod in his right leg as he broke his femur. His left arm was broken in three places, that surgery last Thursday put back together. He also had to have bladder surgery. Kenny Waldo said Seth was in facial surgery Wednesday and then would be flown to St. Elias specialty hospital in Anchorage to recuperate early next week.
He said his son does not remember the accident.
“I’m not supposed to talk to him about it,” he said. “I think he was stressed out yesterday being cooped up for almost two weeks. He was really worried about all of his fishing stuff, you know?”
Kenny Waldo said he drove up to the Tok area to retrieve the truck and as many of his son’s belongings as he could and was blown away by how much expensive fishing gear was packed into the truck.
Now, that truck is sitting down in his shop and he can’t stop looking at it. He said Seth, who was between jobs, did not have health insurance. But, it’s also not yet clear who caused the accident so anyone who wants to help needs to be patient while all that is sorted out, he said.
“Everybody asked, ‘What can I do?’” he said. “I said get on Facebook and thank Tristan. I want his kids to know that their dad is a hero. If it wasn’t for him, Seth wouldn’t be here, you know? ”