Troopers, ambulance among those in accidents as snow falls around Kansas

Troopers and an ambulance were involved in accidents reported Thursday morning as snow dropped around Kansas.

Dozens of crashes were reported during the morning commute in Sedgwick County. One of those was a non-injury accident involving an ambulance. It happened around 10:11 a.m. on eastbound K-96 by Hillside, according to a Sedgwick County Emergency Communications supervisor.

She said department policy didn’t allow her to say if the ambulance was transporting anyone.

On I-70 in Wabaunsee County, the back of a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper’s SUV was smashed by a semi. The trooper wasn’t in the vehicle when the collision occurred. He wasn’t injured.

Another trooper, this time in the Wichita area, was also hit but is OK. A photo from the KHP showed damage toward the back of the trooper’s SUV. One photo also appeared to show a damaged hood.

Sedgwick County Emergency Communications had 42 reported accidents between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. There were 16 during the same time period Wednesday when the roads were free of snow.

Among those were three reported injury accidents, compared to one the same time period the day before.

The first injury accident reported from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. was at 6:53 a.m. at 5400 West Kellogg. It was followed by another reported injury accident at 7:24 a.m. at 53rd Street North and Meridian. The last one was 8:06 a.m. at 1700 South Broadway.

The reported injury accidents don’t necessarily mean someone was injured. Multiple people could also call to report one wreck.

Vanessa Pearce, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said she thought there were fewer accidents than expected with the snow since fewer people appeared to be on the road. She said the cameras on Kandrive.org showed fewer commuters than usual.

Kandrive showed most of the highways around Wichita were completely covered with snow. As of 1:30 p.m., the only highway listed as only partially covered, instead of completely covered, was K-96 west of I-235.

Snow started falling around Wichita between 4:30 a.m. to 5 a.m., she said. The snow is expected to stop altogether around 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Wichita was forecast to get between 6 to 8 inches of snow.

Not everyone in Kansas saw snow. Trooper Ben Gardner tweeted a photo around 12:40 p.m. that showed no snow from his office in Salina.

This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 1:36 PM.