photo by: John Henry/Journal-World File Photo

This file photo from 2008 shows a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper approaching a vehicle after a traffic stop on Kansas Highway 10.

The Kansas Highway Patrol investigated five fatal crashes in a 12-hour period Friday.

Six people died in the five wrecks, which occurred from 12:40 p.m. Friday to midnight. Three of the crashes involved tractor-trailers, and one was a single-vehicle crash of a motorcycle.

According to preliminary reports from the highway patrol:

• At 12:40 p.m. on U.S. Highway 81 in Ottawa County, north of Minneapolis, a pickup crossing the highway failed to yield to an oncoming semi.

The pickup driver, Jamie L. Smith, 32, of Delphos, died. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

• At 1 p.m. on U.S. Highway 24 in Riley County, a Ford Focus making a left turn collided with a GMC Yukon coming from the other direction.

The crash killed the driver of the Yukon, Larmar E. Whitson III, 48, of Blue Rapids. He was wearing his seat belt.

• A double-fatality crash happened just before 4:30 p.m. near Parsons in Labette County, when a pickup crossed over into oncoming lanes of U.S. Highway 400 and hit a semi head-on.

The crash killed both the pickup driver, Steven L. Bradford, 39, of Jetmore, and the semi driver, Harry B. Pierce, 53, of Torrington, Wyo. It was unknown whether the men had on seat belts.

• Just before 6:40 p.m. south of Ottawa in Franklin County, a Harley Davidson touring motorcycle failed to negotiate a curve and veered off John Brown Road and down an embankment.

The crash killed driver Robert D. Cluck, 52, of Wathena, who was not wearing a helmet. A female passenger, who was wearing a helmet, was taken to a Kansas City-area hospital with serious injuries.

• At midnight, two tractor-trailers collided on Kansas Highway 32 in Wyandotte County. A semi hauling a concrete bridge girder was making a left turn onto the highway from 59th Street Lane, when the other semi, which was eastbound on the highway, struck the girder.

The driver of the semi hauling the girder, Errol Stevens, 59, of Independence, Mo., died. He was wearing a seat belt.