Sumner County official who chairs Kansas group arrested after Sedgwick County crash

The director of Sumner County planning, zoning and environmental health, who also chairs a statewide organization, bonded out of Sedgwick County Jail early Thursday morning after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence following an accident the night before.

Jon Vernon Bristor, 46, said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that he didn’t go into work Thursday or tell his employer that he had been arrested. Besides the top role in his department, Bristor also is the chairman of the Kansas Association for Floodplain Management Board of Directors, according to the organization’s website.

Officers were called at 7:53 p.m. Wednesday for a accident in the 8500 block of South Hydraulic after Bristor left the road and went into the ditch, according to the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office.

Bristor said he was headed home when an oncoming vehicle ran him off the road and his van got stuck in the ditch. He wasn’t injured and the van wasn’t damaged, Bristor said.

Asked if he had been drinking, Bristor said: “Won’t say one way or the other on that.”

Bristor posted his $1,500 bond at 4:53 a.m., Sheriff’s Lt. Tim Myers said in an email.

This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 4:16 PM.