Violent wreck ends in chase, arrests, demolished cars

Drunken driving suspected in Haskell Avenue crash

A suspected drunken driver ran a stop sign, smashed two cars and ran away from the scene Saturday afternoon in East Lawrence.

The events created a tense scene, no major injuries and two arrests, said Sgt. Susan Hadl, a Lawrence police spokeswoman. Hadl outlined the suspected cause of the accident.

It started at 3:20 p.m. when a 25-year-old Olathe man drove a red Ford pickup truck to the east on 13th Street and ran a stop sign at Haskell Avenue.

The truck then collided with a northbound black passenger car.

Neither the Olathe man, his passenger, who is also from Olathe, nor the driver of the black car were injured, but the truck apparently kept moving after the accident and eventually struck a white vehicle that was headed to the west on 13th Street.

“We had two vehicles struck by the red pickup,” Hadl said.

The two Olathe men in the red truck ran from the scene, but officers eventually rounded them up and arrested them about one block away in a residential area.

The occupants in the white vehicle suffered minor scrapes and burns from air bags, but they refused medical treatment at the scene.

Amanda Rahy, 28, left, hugs Brooke Mayaugh, 27, as they survey the remains of an accident that involved three vehicles Saturday afternoon at 13th and Haskell. Although both had been in the white car with Mayaugh driving, they escaped with only minor scrapes.

The truck’s passenger was arrested on a charge of obstructing an investigation.

The driver was arrested on charges of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of an injury accident, failing to report an accident, failing to stop at a stop sign and obstruction of the investigation.

Hadl said officers investigated both men for alcohol and determined that they were both intoxicated.

She said she was unaware if the men resisted arrest or if officers had to draw their guns to make the arrests.

As of Saturday evening, the two remained in the Douglas County Jail, according to jail records.

Phillip Turner was in his home nearby when he heard the wreck. He came out to check on the passengers in the cars, he said.

He approached a woman who was driving one of the cars involved.

“I told her to just relax,” Turner said. “I said to stay right there, in case she was hurt and didn’t know it.”

Theresa Berkovich was nearby as well, and she said she watched the truck fly through the intersection and strike a car.

The wreck was so violent that police at the scene later found a stop sign, formerly attached to the north-east corner of the intersection, dangling from the branches of a nearby tree.