photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

First responders work a vehicle accident near the Kansas River bridge north of Eudora on April 18, 2022.

A Lawrence man was taken to a hospital by helicopter after a crash that closed the Kansas River bridge near Eudora on Monday, and a woman from Montana was also injured, according to the Leavenworth County Sheriff’s Office.

In a news release, Leavenworth County Undersheriff J. W. Sherley said that just after 5 p.m. on Monday, a 24-year-old Lawrence man was driving north on 222nd Street at high speed, and his Chevy S-10 pickup went off the right side of the road. When the man corrected back onto the road, the truck crossed the center line and struck a Ford F-150 driven by a 66-year-old woman from Billings, Montana, Sherley said.

Both drivers were taken to the KU hospital, according to the release. The man was taken via helicopter, and the woman was taken by Leavenworth County EMS, the release said.

In a phone call with the Journal-World on Tuesday morning, Sherley said he didn’t know the drivers’ current condition. The release did not include the drivers’ names.

The release said the roadway was closed for more than two hours while law enforcement investigated the crash.

As the Journal-World previously reported, the bridge between Douglas and Leavenworth counties was temporarily closed after the crash, forcing many motorists to take a significant detour to cross the Kansas River. The Eudora bridge is the only Kansas River crossing between Lawrence and De Soto.