Man injured after crashing into firefighter memorial statue, Wichita police say

A 39-year-old man was found breathing but unresponsive early Thursday morning after the car he was driving jumped the curb, hit a sign and ran into a memorial statue at the Kansas Firefighters Museum in Wichita, police said.

EMS took the man to a local hospital in critical but stable condition, police spokesperson Andrew Ford said. Police are still investigating what led to the wreck, which the museum said happened around 2:30 a.m.

The museum is located at 1300 South Broadway.

KFM Board President Tod Newlin said the statue was installed in 2001 and weighs thousands of pounds. At least two or three sides of the granite on it will need to be replaced, and could cost several thousand dollars, he said, adding they plan to file a claim with insurance.

“We hope that the person that is involved is doing OK,” he said. “If the statue wasn’t there, they would have went into the side of our museum.”

“Could have been a lot worse,” he said.

The driver was headed north on Broadway before the wreck.

Statue a memorial to fallen Kansas firefighters

The statue depicts a firefighter finding another firefighter’s helmet while searching through rubble. One of the sides damaged says “KANSAS FALLEN FIREFIGHTERS MEMORIAL” and another damaged side says “FINAL CALL.”

Just behind the statue is a memorial wall with the names of 141 Kansas firefighters who died in the line of duty. Newlin said someone spray-painted the statue before, but that washed off. He also said a driver once left the road and crashed into the anchored benches next to the museum.