MANKATO ? Mark Colson, a photographer who had worked for several Kansas newspapers, was killed early Tuesday in an accident on a Jewell County road.

Sheriff Kim Ost said Colson, 33, of Mankato, was driving a sport utility vehicle that left County Road 160 seven miles north of Mankato, slid into a ditch and struck a utility pole guy wire.

He died at the scene.

Colson worked for The Chanute Tribune from 1994 to 1998, when he joined The Hutchinson News, working there until 2001. He then worked for The Hays Daily News, leaving a year ago to farm for his family near Mankato.

Colson earned an agricultural degree from Fort Hays State University in 1994.