Pair changing tire on Wichita highway killed when intoxicated driver hit them, KHP says
A crash Thursday on a north Wichita highway ramp left two people dead and a person in jail.
The Kansas Highway Patrol says Christian L. Evans and Emily M. Stein were changing a tire on the driver’s side of a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer when a 2014 Ram pickup left the road for an “unknown reason” and ran into them.
Evans, 20, of Elk City, and Stein, 18, of Wichita, both died.
The man driving the pickup, 26-year-old Travis Lee Mock of Wichita, wasn’t hurt. But authorities suspect he was either drunk or high behind the wheel.
He was booked early Friday morning into the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of two counts of involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence, misdemeanor driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, use or possession with the intent to use drug paraphernalia, not having proof of insurance and a laned roadway violation, booking records show. An online log of jail inmates had no bond amount listed for him Friday morning.
The Highway Patrol said the crash happened at 6:40 p.m. Thursday on I-135 northbound on the ramp to eastbound K-96.
Mock was driving northbound on the ramp heading from I-135 to K-96 when he struck Evans and Stein, the agency said.
