Patriot Guard rider killed in Kansas motorcycle wreck, then man crashes into firetruck
A member of the Patriot Guard Riders died when he was run over in western Kansas while escorting the body of a now-deceased survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II. The fatal interstate crash was followed by a second deadly wreck minutes later when a driver crashed into a firetruck responding to the scene.
Emergency crews were first called at around 7:03 p.m. Saturday to an injury accident on I-70 near exit 95 in Gove County, the Kansas Highway Patrol said in a crash report.
Investigators determined a 2005 Harley Davidson was eastbound on the interstate when the rider “for an unknown reason lost control and laid the motorcycle down,” state troopers wrote in the report. A 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan that was following the motorcycle then hit the rider while in the passing lane.
A third vehicle, a 1993 Honda motorcycle, was hit by debris.
The Harley Davidson motorcycle rider was pronounced dead at the scene. He was identified in the KHP report as Lennie Riedel, 65, of Colby.
The 51-year-old Colorado Springs woman driving the minivan had no apparent injury, and neither did the 76-year-old Colby man driving the Honda motorcycle.
About four minutes later, at around 7:07 p.m., a car crashed into the back of a parked firetruck in the same area. A separate highway patrol crash report states that the 2011 Honda Accord was driven by Carl A. Silvrants, 81, of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The car hit a 1997 Stewart and Stevenson M 1083.
Silvrants died at the scene. A 35-year-old firefighter from Grainfield had no apparent injury.
The motorcycle rider who died — Riedel — was a member of the Patriot Guard Riders and was escorting the casket of World War II veteran Donald Stratton, KKTV reported. Stratton’s procession left Colorado Springs on Saturday and passed through Kansas on the way to his burial site in Nebraska, WKRG reported.
Before his death two weeks ago, Stratton was one of three living crew members of the USS Arizona who survived the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, 9News reported. He was 97.
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 12:09 PM.