A 43-year-old Lawrence man was injured Friday morning in a cross-median crash after his vehicle hydroplaned during heavy rain on Kansas Highway 10 just west of Eudora, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.
Todd Alan Armbrust lost control of his 2006 Hyundai Sonata at 6:45 a.m. as he was headed in the eastbound lanes of the divided highway. His vehicle entered the median and then K-10’s westbound lanes and struck the passenger side of a 2003 Dodge Neon. The crash occurred about one-third of a mile west of the Church Street exit in Eudora.
Armbrust was taken to Overland Park Regional Medical Center by ambulance. The driver of the Neon, Dustin A. Young, 40, of Eudora, was not injured. Both men wore their seat belts. Division Chief Eve Tolefree, a Lawrence Douglas County Fire Medical spokeswoman, said Armbrust’s injuries were not believed to be life threatening.
A hospital spokeswoman Friday afternoon said Armbrust was listed in stable condition.
Kim Qualls, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Transportation, said the crash occurred just outside of a pilot project scheduled to begin next month that will install cable barriers in the median for two miles just east of the Church Street exit. That project was prompted by the April 2011 death of 5-year-old Cainan Shutt when an impaired driver crossed the median and struck the minivan driven by Cainan’s grandfather just east of the Church Street exit.
Qualls said Friday morning weather had caused several accidents in the Kansas City area, and KDOT was advising drivers to take extra precautions, especially because pavement has been dry for so long before heavy rains began falling.
“This is the day when people need to drive a little slower,” she said.
Comments
Clickker 10 months, 2 weeks ago
texting?
jerice43 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Why would you ask that? Are you naive enough to think all accidents are caused by texting?
OonlyBonly 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Because around here and on that roadway it's quite common for one reason.
acornwebworks 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Well, almost 30% of accidents involve texting, and the #1 cause of car accidents is distracted driving, so it sounds like kind of a legitimate question to me.
AreUNorml 10 months, 2 weeks ago
source?
gphawk89 10 months, 2 weeks ago
My wife got rear ended last month on a straight and level street on a clear sunny afternoon. The driver admitted to texting. It's a perfectly legitimate question/assumption.
ladyoneill 10 months, 2 weeks ago
The roads are slippery with oil since we haven't had rain forever.
Curtis Lange 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Didn't look like a roll over accident. Silver car for sure crossed over (hydroplaned?) and was t boned by a blue Neon. We drove by at 745am.
justforfun 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Hurry Hurry!! Put up the cable barriers it will protect against unsafe drivers!
gccs14r 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Just don't hit it if you're on a motorcycle. Can you say tomato slicer?
KRichards 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Unfortunately the barriers would not have done anything in this case, as they will not be installed in this location.
greywolf85203 10 months, 2 weeks ago
This is the perfect example of why we need the barriers on K-10 also it would help if people didn't think it was the Indy 500! Its 70 people and if you didn't read the article in yesterdays paper you might want to archive it as they are going to crack down on speeders on K-10, I-70 and 1-35. Get there safe slow down, ignore your phones, use hands free devices if you need to call!
BinxBolloxed 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Glad to see somebody's speaking some sense!
jenjen 10 months, 2 weeks ago
It was pouring rain when the accident happened. I think that I passed it heading EB just after it happened. While there are a lot of people that I see texting while driving on K10 I think that this one was probably caused by hydroplaning. Even going considerably under the 70 mph limit is was very slick. I myself had to correct a hydroplane or 2 going through the downpour.
CreatureComforts 10 months, 2 weeks ago
No no, it MUST be texting! MUST BE!!!!!! All accidents are caused by an idiot behind the wheel...nothing else can go wrong!
:)
squawkhawk 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Surely you exaggerate! Not ALL accidents are caused by an idiot behind the wheel...JUST MOST OF THEM!
Clickker 10 months, 2 weeks ago
I have been passed twice during a rain storm by folks going > 65 that immediately went into a hydroplane on a wet highway. One of them was on K-10 I am constantly amazed at the speed that people go in wet pavement. The difference between 60 and 75 getting to Olathe on K-10 is about 4 minutes, and thats if you dont run into traffic downstream. Do people really want to get to work 4 minutes quicker? Amazing.
squawkhawk 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Like CreatureComforts said, "idiots behind the wheel".
cheeseburger 10 months, 2 weeks ago
+1
grimpeur 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Maybe. But it isn't.
CreatureComforts 10 months, 1 week ago
Or the people who don't turn on their lights, which seems to be all-too-common in this area. Where I learned to drive, it was a strictly enforced law that was pounded in to you from your first driving license. Here, it seems to be an afterthought and, as a result, dangerous. I've come across many cars going 40 on I-70 or K-10 during storms without lights on and they make it very dangerous.
Curtis Lange 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Since we're talking idiots, I was amazed at the amount of them without their headlights on in the downpour! Wipers come on, so do the headlights. There is no excuse to not have one's headlights on in inclement weather.
jenjen 10 months, 2 weeks ago
I'm always amazed by this too. I also can't stand it when I see someone w/ just their parking lights on as if that's going to help people see them better.
SFBayhawk 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Both drivers wore seat belts so the carnage was relatively to very mild.
mommatocharlie 10 months, 2 weeks ago
The median cables cannot come too soon! Now if they ever finish I35 northbound, it will be a better way to get to Kansas City.
none2 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Median cables do not stop stupid driving. You can just as easily hydroplane and crash into someone in the lane right next to you. Plus you can hydroplane into someone on a two lane road...
Notice there weren't any reports of hydroplaning on US-24, US-59, US-40, I-70, yet those roads probably got the same amount of rain as fell on K-10.
Starlight 10 months, 2 weeks ago
There was toad strangling rain on 24 around 8 this morning and the road was a river for a few miles. Forty miles an hour or so.
JerryStubbs 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Here's from another article here on the LJWORLD website:
"Two accidents, possibly related to the rainy weather, occurred Friday morning on the Kansas Turnpike near the Leavenworth-Wyandotte county line.
No serious injuries occurred in either accident.
The first accident occurred about 7:30 a.m., according to a Kansas Turnpike Authority report. Sarah Updike, 30, Kansas City, Kan., spun out of control in her 2005 Lincoln Navigator while driving west on the turnpike, just west of mile marker 222.
The_Big_B 10 months, 2 weeks ago
<< Qualls said Friday morning weather had caused several accidents >>
Weather doesn't cause accidents, bad driving causes accidents.
reality_check79 10 months, 2 weeks ago
The only idiots are the ones assuming they know what really happen...
JJE007 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Just a half of a second of over-correcting to avoid a collision can lead to unseen and unfortunate outcomes...but I'm not sure about what I HAVE seen, much less what I've not actually witnessed.
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