Bystanders attempt to rescue the occupants of the burning vehicles at the crash near Lane on Sunday./Still Video Capture
LANE – The Kansas Highway Patrol has identified eight people who were killed in a fiery crash on U.S. 169 north of Greeley Sunday night and a 15 year-old boy who apparently escaped the tragedy with minor injuries.
KHP investigators say a 2016 Yukon driven by 33 year-old Jaimon D. Gilstrap of Tulsa, Okla., was southbound on U.S. 169 when he attempted to pass a slower moving vehicle. Alexander R. Ernst, 37 of Ames, Iowa, was driving a 2016 Subaru northbound. Both drivers attempted an avoidance maneuver and collided head-on on the northbound shoulder, erupting into flames.
Fatalities in Gilstrap’s vehicle included the driver as well as 14 year-old Kyron Gilstrap, 14 year-old Donald Laster all of Tulsa, and 41 year-old Wayne Walls of Talala, Okla. Fifteen year-old Brade Walls, also of Talala, survied with what were believed to be minor injuries. The KHP report says all occupants of Gilstrap’s vehicle were wearing their seatbelts.
Those in Ernst’s vehicle included the driver as well as 76 year-old John D. Elliot, 69 year-old Noreen Elliot and 33 year-old Madalyn N. Elliot, all of Chesterfield, Mo. All occupants were wearing seatbelts.
The accident occurred on a long hill just north of U.S. 169’s intersection with the Virginia Road exit to Lane. It follows another crash that killed 8 on I-70 in Sherman County in western Kansas in March.
The youths and the two coaches in Gillstrap’s vehicle were part of the Oklahoma Chaos youth basketball program returning from the NXTPRO youth basketball tournament in Kansas City, Ks., over the weekend.
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.
