Cause of truck’s crash into Derby baseball dugout unclear

Authorities have begun to clean up after a pickup smashed through the dugout on a Derby baseball field Tuesday night, injuring three players and the driver.

They are still not sure why the truck crashed shortly after a Derby Twins game concluded at around 10 p.m.

The Derby Twins, a summer-league college baseball team, had defeated the Bethany (Okla.) Bulls 11-10 minutes before the crash at the school district’s Panther Field at Market and Woodlawn, just south of Madison.

The driver, a 41-year-old Derby man, was taken to Wesley Medical Center in serious condition, a Sedgwick County emergency dispatcher said. The players had minor injuries.

The driver was not a patient at Wesley on Wednesday, according to a hospital operator.

The driver of the truck was southbound on Woodlawn when he veered across the northbound lanes and through a chain-link fence at the field, Derby Police Chief Robert Lee said. He drove through the batting cages, knocked over a power transformer and crashed into the back of the dugout.

Rickey Noland, head coach of the Derby Twins, said Tuesday night that people in the stands saw the driver’s face “down at the steering wheel” before he ran into the transformer.

“I don’t know how fast it’s going, but I know he wasn’t going 25 mph,” Noland said. “He had to be going faster than that.”

The lights at the field went out, and the truck kicked up a lot of dust and dirt, Noland said. He couldn’t see in front of him, so he turned on a flashlight feature on his iPhone. He then dived under the truck in the dugout, looking for any players.

Ken Jarrett, an assistant coach for the Twins, said Tuesday night that he was walking by third base when the truck smashed through the dugout.

“There were kids running around the area right before the game ended,” he said. “Thank goodness it didn’t go into extra innings. I just thank God that he was watching over us.”

Three players sustained minor injuries. Two had cuts. The third was sitting “right where the truck came through,” Noland said.

“He heard it go through the batting cages, so he jumped up,” Noland said. “The front right tire hit him in the back and lunged him forward, so he’s got tire marks on his back. He said he felt fine – he got evaluated by EMS and he’s still going to go to the hospital, just to make sure he’s not got any internal problems or anything.”

After checking on his players, Noland said, he “tried to keep communication” with the driver of the truck. “I got his name and told him everything was going to be OK,” he said. “He focused on me until the ambulance and firefighters came out.”

Josh Rogers, a Twins fan who was at the game Tuesday, said it was like something “out of a movie.”

“It’s freaky, freaky stuff,” he said. “I’d never wish that upon anybody.”

Deputy Chief Tim Brant said investigators hadn’t talked to the driver as of Wednesday afternoon.

Alcohol does not appear to be an issue in the incident, but excessive speed does, Brant said.

“We’ve got a few things that we’re trying to nail down” in the investigation, he said.

The city is left with repairs estimated at $15,000 to $18,000. That includes about 100 feet of chain-link fence, new batting cages and a new dugout, said Tom Snodgrass, director of facilities for Derby Public Schools.

The Derby Twins played the last of its series with the Bulls at a baseball field in Haysville on Wednesday. Snodgrass said he is asking the Twins to “hold off on games for a couple of nights” until repairs can be made to the field.

The city is hoping repair costs will be covered by the driver’s insurance policy, he said. Until an insurance adjuster can assess the scene, the city has cordoned off the dugout area, both “to preserve the scene” and to prevent kids from hurting themselves, Snodgrass said.

The plan is to demolish the existing dugout and build a new one. After that is done, games will resume at Panther Field.

This story was originally published June 23, 2015 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Cause of truck’s crash into Derby baseball dugout unclear."