Kansas Highway Patrol reports three fatal accidents over Memorial Day weekend

The Kansas Highway Patrol responded to three fatal accidents in Kansas during the Memorial Day weekend, and arrested 30 people for DUI offenses, according to a news release issued by the KHP.

The three deaths resulted from accidents in Hamilton, Crawford, and Johnson counties.

Early Monday in Overland Park, a 2007 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by Jason M. Gearhart, 38, left the roadway while traveling on the northbound 75th Street exit of Interstate 35 about 1:30 a.m., according to the patrol. Gearhart was ejected from the motorcycle and killed.

In Hamilton County on Friday, a 19-year-old Larkspur woman was killed in a dune buggy accident.

On Saturday, in Crawford County, a 26-year-old Pittsburg man was killed in single-vehicle accident that also injured two other people in the car. The patrol said the accident was alcohol-related, and was among nine alcohol-related accidents the patrol reported across the state between 6 p.m. Friday and noon Monday. In a similar time period last year, the patrol reported two alcohol-related crashes and one death in an accident that was not alcohol-related.

Troopers also wrote 1,109 speeding tickets through the weekend and assisted 1,176 motorists. An accident in Ellsworth Kansas Tuesday morning that killed four people and injured a child was not among the crashes listed in the highway patrol’s report.