Two injured in south Wichita wreck involving dump truck; driver who fled is arrested

Two people were injured in a wreck involving a car and dump truck Tuesday evening at Pawnee and Broadway, according to Wichita police.

Police say the dump truck ran a red traffic light at the intersection and hit a green Honda that was turning south onto Broadway off of westbound Pawnee. The dump truck was driving east when the collision occurred a few minutes before 5:30 p.m.

The crash left the driver of the Honda with non-life-threatening injuries and the passenger in critical condition, Wichita police spokesman Officer Charley Davidson said Wednesday. Both were pinned inside of the car.

Sgt. Clayton Schuler said Tuesday evening at the crash scene that the dump truck driver — identified by police as 54-year-old Michael Schell of Wichita — “ took off running” after the wreck.

Schell was later found in a nearby neighborhood with the help of witnesses and video footage, police said, and arrested on outstanding warrants. The warrants are connected to at least five cases, jail booking records show.

He’s currently being held in lieu of bonds totaling $35,000.

Schell has not yet been charged with any crimes in connection with Tuesday’s crash. But Davidson said the police investigation is ongoing and that authorities plan to present their findings later to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, which will decide what charges might be filed.

The passenger of the Honda remained hospitalized Wednesday.

“At far as we know at the moment it’s a personally owned (dump) truck,” Schuler said Tuesday at the crash site.

The two men in the Honda were initially reported as being critically and seriously injured. The wreck was reported at 5:24 p.m.

This story was originally published August 17, 2021 at 7:57 PM.