Life-flight helicopter called in after wreck on Kansas Highway 10

A wreck Monday afternoon closed Kansas Highway 10 just east of Lawrence for more than two hours and sent a Topeka man by helicopter to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Department received a call about the accident around 3 p.m. Monday after a car traveling into Lawrence along the highway struck a east-bound truck as it tried to turn left onto Noria Road, spokeswoman Lt. Keri Wempe said.

When fire and medical responders arrived, they found three people injured, Wempe said.

Just after 3:30 p.m., a life-flight helicopter arrived and transported the driver of the truck, an 85-year-old Topeka resident, to University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., in critical condition.

The man was on a respirator and being assisted by a handful of paramedics and fire personnel while being lifted onto the helicopter.

The driver and passenger in the other vehicle, two 20-year-old men from Overland Park, were taken by ambulance to Lawrence Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Wempe said.

The department couldn’t say if any of the persons injured had seat belts on. There was no indication that alcohol was involved.

The wreck was near the entrance to the East Hills Business Park, an intersection where several injury accidents have occurred in recent years.

In the past, the department has discussed putting a stoplight there, changing the speed limit or installing an interchange with merging lanes.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Division Chief Rob Kort said that although he didn’t think the area had an excessive amount of accidents, he did recall the department being called to several wrecks there in the past.