WICHITA, Kan. — At least seven people have died in separate car crashes in Kansas since Friday morning.
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Wichita Police Department, 14 separate crashes from Friday through Sunday have contributed to at least seven deaths and 23 suspected injuries, KSNW reports.
Friday
Friday morning around 11:10 a.m., a crash in Republic County, which is in northern Kansas, left one Wichita man dead after his vehicle ran into the back of a semi-truck that had slowed to make a left turn.
Later that afternoon, a crash between a semi and a motorcycle left one person dead north of Junction City, according to the Geary County Sherriff’s Office. Troopers say the crash happened at the intersection of U.S. Highway 77 and Kansas Highway 57 in Milford, Kansas.
Saturday
A teenager died early Saturday morning in a crash outside of Bird City. Around 1:45 a.m., troopers say John Serrano, 17, of Bird City, was beginning to pass a semi on U.S. Highway 36 when the road started to curve. Serrano continued straight and collided with a concrete barrier. He died of his injuries.
On Saturday afternoon around 2:15, a crash involving two semis shut down traffic on part of the Kansas Turnpike in southeast Wichita. Darwin Dammann, 60, of Iowa was ejected from his vehicle and was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries.
Later Saturday, a three-car crash in Ellsworth County left a 41-year-old Salina man dead. Troopers say Lance Martin’s car veered across the centerline of Kansas Highway 156 and struck another vehicle. A third vehicle then hit one of the vehicles. Martin died at the scene. The other two drivers did not have serious injuries.
Sunday
On Sunday morning, the state saw three different fatality crashes in a two-hour period.
A teenager died in a crash in Coffey County just after 2 a.m. Griffin Lamb, 18, of Lenexa, was a passenger in an SUV headed south on U.S. Highway 75. Roughly three miles south of Burlington, troopers say a northbound pickup crossed the centerline and hit the SUV.
Lamb died at the scene. The SUV driver, Brandon Darbyshire, 19, of Eureka, and the other passenger, Thomas Greig, 20, of Prairie Village, suffered serious injuries.
The KHP said Gary Miser, 52, of Emporia, was driving the pickup and also suffered serious injuries.
About 3 a.m., a 19-year-old from Selma, California, died when the car he was in crashed in Ellis County. Troopers say the car was heading west on Eighth Street at a high rate of speed and failed to stop at the U.S. Highway 183 stop sign. The car went over an embankment, went airborne and flipped end-over-end before landing on its roof.
Jacob Rivera died in the crash. Troopers say the driver, Dalton Hall, 20, of Illinois, and two other passengers from California, Chelsey Mendoza, 20, and Victoria Borrego, 21, all have serious injuries.
At 4:15 a.m., near Hoxie in Sheridan County, Vernon Rietcheck, 79, was heading west on U.S. Highway 24 when troopers say he attempted to make a left turn onto Kansas Highway 188. The KHP said he missed the roadway and crashed with a concrete culvert. He died at the scene.