There was a llama in the road, Derby woman says of accident

A Derby woman told authorities she ended up with broken glass lodged in one eye after she hit a llama with her SUV early Thursday morning.

Verna Nitcher, 58, told a Sedgwick County deputy that she was driving a blue 1997 Chevy Suburban west on 79th Street South between Derby and Rose Hill when she struck the beast at 12:25 a.m., according to Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Lin Dehning.

“She reported that she hit a llama, which shattered the driver’s side mirror on her vehicle,” Dehning said. Nitcher told the deputy the llama had been standing in the road in the 13800 block of 79th Street South, Dehning said. The impact left her with a shard of glass in her right eye.

After the collision, she told the deputy she was going to a hospital emergency room to have it removed, Dehning said.

Dehning said the deputy who responded to the crash scene didn’t find any fur or blood on the SUV so he wasn’t able to determine what exactly Nitcher hit. The deputy also didn’t find an injured llama in the area, he said, and didn’t know where it might have belonged.

Llamas are domesticated animals that can be used for food and wool and are often kept to protect other livestock from predators.

This story was originally published June 30, 2017 at 2:00 PM with the headline "There was a llama in the road, Derby woman says of accident."