Emergency responders massed at the scene of a collision Sunday on U.S. 169 in Franklin County north of Greeley that took 8 lives./Kansas Informer photo
Kansas Highway Patrol investigators in eastern Kansas worked into the night Sunday trying to determine how two vehicles slammed into each other head on U.S. 169, killing eight people and sending one to a local hospital with injuries.’
KHP said the accident occurred around 5:40 p.m. when two vehicles met head-on on the two-lane highway about two miles north of Greeley just north of the highway’s intersection with Virginia Road in Franklin County. The roadway is a long hill with a slight curve to the south. The impact occurred on the straight stretch before the hill crests. One or both vehicles ended up in flames on the east side of the highway according to passersby photos shared on social media and with a Kansas City television station.
The accident was the second in Kansas within 60 days to claim multiple lives. A dust storm-induced crash involving more than 70 vehicles in western Kansas March 14 on I-70 also took eight lives and injured multiple drivers and passengers.
U.S. 169 remained closed from Paola to Garnett Sunday as KHP officers studied the scene. As of late Sunday the identities of the deceased had not been released.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
