Print edition: 
In a waiting room at Wesley Medical Center's surgical intensive care unit, friends and family members waited Monday for news of Hana Choi.
The 17-year-old Wichita girl survived an early-morning accident on the Kansas Turnpike that killed her mother, Kyoung Yeon Chae; her twin sister, Yuna Choi, 17; and her brother, Seo Won Choi, 9. Gregory William Davis, 27, the driver of an SUV that struck the family's minivan, also died.
Davis' vehicle was northbound in the southbound lanes of the turnpike near the Belle Plaine service area when it hit the family's van head-on, the Kansas Turnpike Authority said.
Immediately afterward, the minivan was struck in the rear by a southbound semi-trailer. The semi's driver, Reginald Jones, 37, of Hopkins, S.C., was taken to a hospital with "non-serious" injuries, the authority said.
The family had left Wichita early Monday morning to attend a family reunion in Oklahoma City, said Korean United Methodist Church Pastor Daniel Kim.
Hana Choi remained in critical condition late Monday. She faces surgery for back and neck injuries.
Some of the family members from Oklahoma, who were to be at the reunion, came to the hospital.
Three students from East High brought flowers; others gathered around the family. The Choi girls are sophomores enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program and have participated on the school's swim team.
The father, Eunseo Choi, was distraught.
He didn't go with the rest of his family Monday morning because he had to work at a local clothing store.
The family, from Seoul, South Korea, immigrated to the United States in 2001.
Wrong-way driver
At 4:38 a.m. Monday, dispatchers for the Kansas Turnpike Authority began receiving phone calls.
The driver of a red 1995 SUV was headed the wrong way on I-35 near Belle Plaine.
Numerous calls were taken in the next few minutes as Davis traveled north from the exit in the southbound lanes nearly five miles.
At 4:40, the phone call came reporting a major accident near the 30.9 mile marker on the turnpike.
The accident blocked all southbound lanes of traffic. The semi-trailer overturned onto its side. The SUV and van came to rest in the passing lane. The SUV caught fire.
The Kansas Highway Patrol is investigating the accident. Authorities declined to comment Monday about why Davis was traveling in the wrong direction.
The Davis family also declined comment.
It's the second accident in which four people were killed on the turnpike in the past month. Three Wichita residents and one person from Sedgwick died when a driver headed south on the turnpike attempted a U-turn through an opening between the concrete barriers separating north- and southbound traffic about 2.5 miles north of the Oklahoma line.
But accidents like this one — with a driver headed the wrong way — are rare, said Rachel Bell, communications specialist for the Kansas Turnpike Authority.
The Belle Plaine service area sits between the southbound and northbound lanes of the turnpike. The area's design is based on one the authority has used since the 1950s, Bell said.
"It serves both directions of the turnpike," she said. "You can make a U-turn at the interchange if you were going northbound and then turn around and go southbound. Nothing prevents you from going in the wrong direction other than the signs and the fact that you would be on the wrong side of the road."
Because of this accident, turnpike authorities may take a closer look at the design, Bell said.
"Certainly it is a question we will take into consideration. But when you consider the thousands of vehicles that use this service area on a daily basis, this is not a common occurrence. You can't plan for that," she said.
In 2008, the Turnpike reported an average of 9,291 vehicles traveled the southbound lanes daily between Mulvane and Wellington; an average of 9,109 vehicles traveled the northbound route.
The southbound lanes remained blocked for hours while authorities cleared debris and cleaned up fuel leak from the truck. One lane, the passing lane, reopened about 9:45 a.m. The second lane reopened after 6 p.m.
One of the reasons the lane remained closed is that the semi truck, hauling 46,000 pounds of bacon, had to be unloaded.
Although the trailer did not break open in the accident, Bell said, it did bulge. The contents of the trailer had to be unloaded before the trailer could be put upright.
"If they would have set the truck back up while it was full, the trailer would have broken, and then we would have an even bigger mess," Bell said.
News of accident travels quickly
News quickly spread Monday that four Wichitans had died.
Seo Won, 9, was a third grader at Price-Harris Elementary. He participated in taekwondo and soccer.
"They were a wonderful family," Kim said. "The boy was always smiling. The family was in church Sunday."
Joe Hutchinson, East High swim coach, who went to the hospital Monday afternoon, called both Choi girls wonderful.
"I have them both as athletes and in my physics class" in the International Baccalaureate program, Hutchinson said.
Yuna "was an outstanding person, always positive, always friendly, so many people like her," he said. "I never saw her in a bad mood — even at 5:30 in the morning (for practice)."
Shawn Springer, principal at Price-Harris, visited the hospital to talk to the father and give him a hug.
"Seo Won was a light to our school. He was just a great kid. Polite. Smart. Friendly," Springer said. "This is just a tragedy. Everyone wanted to be Seo Won's friend. They (the students) are going to take this very hard. I'm very concerned about my kids."
Although the district has spring break this week, counselors will be on hand for any students who want to talk, said Wendy Johnson, spokesperson for Wichita public schools.
The district's crisis team counselors will be at the schools to talk with faculty and students next Monday when students return to class, Johnson said.
