Wichita police identify two who died in Kellogg crash involving a wrong-way driver

Police have identified the two men who died in a five-vehicle accident caused by a driver who traveled the wrong direction for more than a mile Tuesday morning on Kellogg.

The man who drove a truck in the wrong direction, 37-year-old Brandon White of Wichita, died at the scene, police said. The other man, 60-year-old Rayburn Langston of Wichita, died at a hospital after a head-on collision with White.

Police think, based on the initial calls reported to police, that White went from I-235 to Kellogg and drove east in the westbound lanes.

Calls flooded into 911 after the initial report at 9:04 a.m.

People reported seeing the brown Dodge Ram 4x4 driving down the center lane, not budging for anyone coming at him.

Adam Laplante was headed to work, getting ready to merge onto I-235, when he noticed the extended-cab truck coming fast in the wrong direction.

Laplante said he steered his compact car into the merging lane as the driver of the truck flew by him, going well over the set speed limit.

“He looked focused,” Laplante said about the other driver. “That’s what threw me (for) a loop.”

As Laplante merged, he looked into his rearview mirror and saw drivers swerving to avoid the truck.

Jay Hedger was one of the people to swerve out of the way.

He was also headed to work and had just come over the West Street overpass when the pickup truck came barreling down the center lane where he was driving.

A few vehicles ahead of him swerved to miss a collision. He also swerved into the inside lane to avoid a head-on collision. He and the other motorists all laid down on their horns as well, he said.

“And he just kept driving,” Hedger said. “I looked in my rear view mirror and he didn’t make any attempt to turn around or stop or anything.”

Hedger thinks the accidents started just after that.

Police found a total of five vehicles involved in the accidents.

White, police said, sideswiped a taxi cab, causing that driver to strike a utility vehicle – “neither the cab driver nor the utility vehicle driver were injured.”

White, continuing in the center lane, then had a head-on collision with Langston, police said. Langston was driving a white GMC 4x4 truck when the collision occurred. Both vehicles spun, causing Langston’s extended cab truck to hit a delivery vehicle.

The driver of the delivery truck wasn’t hurt, police said.

Westbound Kellogg was closed for several hours while police mapped out the accident and removed vehicles. The lanes reopened before 3:45 p.m.

This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 4:40 PM.