Print edition: 
He was merging onto eastbound Kellogg from Hillside shortly after noon on Wednesday.
But Nichlocs Hartness miscalculated the speed of the minivan exiting in front of him and his motorcycle clipped the back left of the van, police said.
The impact threw him from his bike and he went skidding across a freeway crowded with lunch-time traffic.
The driver of a semi pulling a dump truck in the far left lane of Kellogg saw Hartness sliding toward him, police said, and desperately tried to avoid him — even slamming his truck into the concrete barrier separating eastbound from westbound traffic.
"He did everything he could," Lt. Joe Schroeder said of the truck driver.
But it was too late.
The truck ran over Hartness, and he died after being taken to Wesley Medical Center.
Hartness, 29, is the sixth motorcycle fatality of the year in Wichita, and the 19th traffic fatality in the city this year.
Motorcycle fatalities this year have already matched the totals of each of the past two years, Schroeder said.
While crashes involving motorcycles often are the result of other drivers not noticing them, he said, this case was different.
"The initial contact with the minivan, we were told, was minor, but it was enough to cause the motorcycle rider to lose control and come off his motorcycle," Schroeder said.
The investigation indicates speed and inattentive driving by Hartness were contributing factors in the collision.
Nothing police have learned suggests the minivan driver was at fault, Schroeder said.
"We don't believe that person even realized that there had been an accident," he said.
The minivan continued onto Hillside and never returned to the scene, witnesses told police.
"Did the minivan cut the motorcycle off?" Schroeder said. "Nothing... indicates that."
Police are looking for that driver, he said, and they also want to talk to anyone who saw the accident.
Witnesses are asked to call the accident follow-up unit at 316-268-4131.
