City of Wichita set to pay $250,000 to settle case where driver was injured amid police pursuit

The City of Wichita is poised to pay $250,000 to a motorist who was hit and injured on Dec. 1, 2020, by a man fleeing police in a stolen vehicle.

Wichita City Council will vote on the settlement Tuesday.

Kelly L. Sandwell, who was 64 when the accident occurred, was taken to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police previously said.

The man who was fleeing police, Donald Tucker Jr., 36, of Chanute, was thrown from the vehicle and died after he clipped the 2014 Toyota Corolla Sandwell was driving.

The accident happened around 6:23 a.m. near MacArthur and Meridian.

Tucker was driving a Chevrolet Cruze, which was left running to warm up and stolen around 6:04 a.m. a few miles from the crash.

Police said the chase lasted less than a mile.

Court filings from Sandwell’s attorney say that police did not follow department policy when continuing a pursuit despite high speeds and it being dark outside.

Tucker was going 115 mph just 2.5 seconds before the crash, according to court records.

Traffic signs around the intersection read 40 mph, according to Google Maps.

Tucker had the green light at the intersection, according to the testimony of officer Juan Diego Espinoza, who was the first officer in the pursuit.

“I knew that he had the green light to go through the intersection even though he was going unreasonably fast,” Espinoza said during his deposition. “I did not know that somebody else was going to try and make a left-hand turn in front of him.”

Espinoza testified that he didn’t terminate the pursuit because Tucker had a green light.

In a deposition, Sgt. Michael John Lloyd said he would have made the call to end the pursuit sooner had he had all the accurate information.

Lloyd “decided to terminate the pursuit when he was told the speed was 95 mph,” court filings say. “This was a fraction of a second before the crash. In reality, 95 mph had occurred about a half-mile away and about 16 seconds before the crash.”

A document in the city council’s agenda said: “Due to the uncertainty and risk of an adverse judgment at trial, the Law Department recommends the settlement. The settlement of this claim does not constitute an admission of liability on the part of the City; rather, it is merely a settlement to resolve a disputed claim.”

This story was originally published February 8, 2025 at 3:26 PM.