photo by: Google Maps

The red marker denotes mile marker 394 on US Highway 24 near where the crash occurred.

A McLouth man was taken to an area hospital on Sunday with a suspected serious injury after a four-vehicle crash near the Lawrence Regional Airport.

The crash occurred just before 3:30 p.m. on U.S. Highway 24/59 just north of the U.S. 24/59 and U.S. Highway 40 intersection, according to a crash report for the Kansas Highway Patrol. A 36-year-old Lawrence man was driving westbound in a 2015 Freightliner semi and slowed to enter a private drive, the report said.

Behind the semi was 49-year-old Joseph Michael Hill, of McLouth, who was driving a 2003 Chevrolet utility van. Hill yielded to the truck when a 19-year-old Oskaloosa man following too closely in a 1994 Dodge Ram 2500 rear-ended Hill causing Hill to crash into the back of the semi, the report said. A fourth vehicle, a 2008 Toyota Camry driven by a 19-year-old Emporia woman, then crashed into the back of the Oskaloosa man’s truck.

Hill was taken to Stormont Vail hospital in Topeka with a suspected serious injury while the other three drivers were not injured. All parties involved were wearing seat belts, the report said.