50-year-old Perry man identified as victim in fatal crash on I-70

A 50-year-old Perry man died Wednesday afternoon in a single-vehicle accident about six miles west of Lawrence on the Kansas Turnpike, Kansas Highway Patrol officials said.

Around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Timothy Adam Lang was driving a 2005 Dodge pickup on the snowy westbound lanes on Interstate 70 and lost control of the vehicle, KHP Master Trooper Ryan Mosher said. The truck spun, then struck and wrapped around the north support beam of a bridge near the Lecompton exit.

Lang was the only person in the truck, Mosher said. Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical first responders reported Lang dead almost immediately after arriving at the scene.

It is unknown whether Lang was wearing a seat belt, the KHP accident report said.

City engineers were sent to the scene to determine the stability and safety of the bridge after the beam was struck, dispatchers said. An update on their determinations was not available Wednesday evening.

The slick road contributed to the accident, Mosher said, and flurries lowered visibility to about 100 yards.

The Kansas Department of Transportation said that at 2:30 p.m., about an hour after the accident, the stretch of I-70 from Lawrence to Topeka was “partly snow-packed” and “slushy.”

Emergency crews shut down the middle and right westbound lanes while investigating the scene, leaving one lane open. The middle lane of traffic reopened around 3 p.m. The right lane reopened shortly after 5 p.m.