A car left the Kansas Turnpike Tuesday and came to rest on an embankment of rocks after the driver had an apparent seizure, a dispatcher for the Kansas Turnpike Authority said on Wednesday.
The driver was headed east on Interstate 70 around milepost 194 shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday when the accident occurred.
A second, two-car accident, occurred shortly after, possibly as a result of drivers looking at the original accident.
No one received serious injuries as a result of the accidents, the dispatcher said.
Comments
bevy 1 year, 4 months ago
I saw this wreck - how the heck did it end up way up there? Too bad there aren't any photos with this story. We thought the car had to have come down from up above.
Pywacket 1 year, 4 months ago
If the car had been going the speed limit, that would make for a lot of momentum when the driver became incapacitated, is my guess. Hope that driver is okay! My sister, in her 40s, had a grand mal seizure at work a few years ago. It came out of nowhere--no prior trauma or illness or anything that offered an explanation. She had to go on antiseizure meds and couldn't drive for 6 months, while they waited to see if it would happen again. They didn't have to tell her twice to avoid driving. The accident in this story was (and remains) her greatest fear--that she will have a seizure while driving & kill someone or herself. Even with the meds and no further incidents (and the blessings of the neurologist and the state of KS), she drives very little and only for short distances. If this was a first for this driver, s/he must be totally unnerved!
The other disturbing thing about this story is the idiot or idiots who wrecked due to gawking. (No way to know whether one or both were to blame.) WHY do people think slowing way down (in clear, open lanes) and staring at an accident is a good idea? Glad no one wound up dead from that boneheaded action.
littlexav 1 year, 4 months ago
Um, did you ever think that he might have been trying to slow down so that he could get out of his car and help? Way to be sensitive to the Good Samaritan - guess there's no such thing any more.
Take_a_letter_Maria 1 year, 4 months ago
Driver A may have been slowing down in order to pull over and provide assistance, but that doesn't excuse driver B for not paying attention to the road in front of them
Pywacket 1 year, 4 months ago
I call BS. First, I intentionally worded my comments so as to take into account just such a scenario--it's possible that ONE driver, rather than both, was to blame for that accident.
As Take a letter Maria indicates, even if one driver (or both, for that matter) intended to actually stop and help, at least one of them had to have been at fault for running into the other--i.e., not paying sufficient attention. Second, let's be honest here... Out of all the slow-and-gawk vehicles I've ever seen in the vicinity of an accident, I could count on one hand the number that actually stopped "to help."
Almost all just slow down, crane their necks to see if they can spot anything to tell their friends about later, then drive on. They do this even when emergency vehicles are on the scene and the original wreck is being handled by professionals. I've heard plenty from EMT friends, who are constantly disgusted by the number of nosy drivers who endanger themselves and others by slowing way down to ogle the scene of an accident. It happens constantly!
So I don't buy your posturing for the sake of the saintly "Good Samaritan." Someone who actually is stopping to help just gets the hell off the road efficiently and parks on the shoulder--they don't slow to a crawl and create a hazard in the driving lane.
And the Looky Lou who comes up and rams them from behind is even more to blame. If that one were planning to stop and help, he'd still need to pay attention to what's in the road ahead of him instead of just smacking into it.
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