A 20-year-old woman has been flown to a Kansas City-area hospital in critical condition after a rollover wreck this afternoon 2 miles southeast of Lawrence.

Lt. Kari Wempe, a Douglas County Sheriff spokeswoman, said the driver was headed north on County Road 1055 at 12:30 p.m., when she veered off the road to the east before the vehicle rolled back across the blacktop road.

“It appears there was some over-correction, which caused the vehicle to roll several times,” Wempe said.

The wreck happened about 2 miles south of 31st Street and Haskell Avenue.

Witnesses said the white Nissan Pathfinder with a state of Washington license plate ended up on its wheels in a ditch on the west side of the road facing south.

Lawrence Douglas County Fire & Medical workers extricated her from the vehicle, and she was flown by a helicopter ambulance to Kansas University Hospital in Kansas City, Kan.

Wempe said the sheriff’s office would not release any more information until later about the driver, who was alone in the vehicle. She said officers were still investigating what caused the driver to veer from the road.

Larry Caldwell, who lives at 1143 East 1500 Road, was playing with his grandchildren in his backyard when he heard the wreck. The vehicle ended up in the ditch – just feet away from a brick wall on his property, which was undamaged.

He said the driver appeared badly injured.

“It kind of puts a lump in your throat when you walk around from in the back of your house and see something like that,” Caldwell said.

He said the driver had her seat belt on. By the time he ran into his house to call 911, a driver in a separate vehicle did the same. The vehicle was heavily damaged, Caldwell said.