MAIZE ? A Maize police officer remained in serious but stable condition Tuesday after an elderly woman driving her car at high speed in the wrong direction on Kansas Highway 96 collided head-on with his police car, killing her and wounding the officer.

Sgt. Doug Prier was trying to stop the woman Monday after many motorists called to report a car speeding east in the westbound lanes of the highway.

The woman driving the car, Marjorie J. Weaver, 88, of Wichita, was dead at the scene of the crash, about three miles west of Maize. The accident took place about 2:26 p.m. Monday and the highway was closed for several hours.

Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Gary Warner said the woman apparently got onto the wrong lanes of the highway in the Mount Hope area. He said she may have mistakenly thought she was driving on a two-lane highway.

Over the next several minutes, Warner said, several people called 911 to report a car traveling on the wrong side of the highway.

Maize Police Chief Matt Jensby said Prier, who is in his early 30s and has been with the department for about four years, was trying to find the woman when the crash occurred.

“Due to the traffic, I don’t think he saw the oncoming car,” Jensby said.

Leticia Oneth, 17, a senior at Wichita’s Southeast High School, said she was one of many drivers honking their horns at the woman.

“It was a good 15 minutes,” Oneth said. “We were right beside her, and we were going 75 or 80. She didn’t slow down at all when people were swerving around her and stuff.”

Oneth said the woman appeared to be in a trance.

“She didn’t move her head one way or the other,” Oneth said. “She didn’t turn her head or anything when we were honking.”

Warner said a trooper in the area caught up with the eastbound car between Mount Hope and Maize, then drove in the eastbound lanes with his lights and siren on, but couldn’t get the driver’s attention.

The trooper was still driving parallel to the woman when her car and the police car collided.

Warner said the patrol’s Critical Accident Response Team was being called in to investigate.

Traffic on Kansas 96 is restricted by construction to two lanes just northwest of Wichita. The accident occurred farther north, on an open stretch of highway with a wide median.