WICHITA, Kansas -- A wreck shut down traffic on K-96 Tuesday morning after an 82-year-old man driving a car crossed the median into opposite-way traffic."Fire had to cut the doors off because of the crush factor of the car,” said Master Trooper Scott Koehn, with the Kansas Highway Patrol. “The doors would not open."
The driver side swiped an SUV, then crashed head-on into another vehicle. Two people were taken to the hospital with injuries.
"We'll just be following through, talking to the drivers to find out what happened,” Koehn said.
The fact that the crash happened is unfortunate enough, but where it happened is even more unfortunate.
The stretch of highway from Rock Road on east has no barrier to block vehicles from crossing over into the other side of traffic.
It’s a far cry from the four miles of cable barrier west of where the accident occured.
"They've got to be saving some lives because we are preventing some cars from going all the way across and hitting on coming traffic,” said Tom Hein, a KDOT spokesman.
KDOT says about nine vehicles have struck the median since being installed about six months ago. Crews are repairing one that happened last week.
“None of those people crossed over into opposing traffic so, we look at that as a successful thing,” Hein said.
There is a reason not all areas are covered by a barrier cover, such as the area where Tuesday's accident occured?
Data shows that most of the accidents that happen on K-96 happen between I-135 and Rock Road. That is where the barrier runs right now, but KDOT officials review projects to see if they need to be expanded every year.
Officials say with accidents like the one Tuesday, it's even more of a reason to increase the barrier presence with hopes of decreasing the accidents.
