Wichita council members crashed a pickup on road to Topeka, make a video about it
.JPG "This still image shows a Wichita city pickup truck damaged in an accident in January involving two City Council members and a department head. News of the accident surfaced this week in a public-service video posted on YouTube to encourage seatbelt usage.")
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the truck was a city vehicle. It was Councilman Bryan Frye’s personal truck.
A Wichita City Council member crashed his truck on the Kansas Turnpike while driving another council member and a department head to attend a ceremony in Topeka in January — and have now made a video about it.
The accident happened Jan. 22, the day the officials were supposed to receive a proclamation from the state Legislature congratulating the city for winning an All-America City award in June.
News of the crash didn’t surface publicly until Wednesday, when the two council members, Bryan Frye and Becky Tuttle, described it in a public-service announcement on YouTube encouraging seat-belt usage. The third city official involved in the crash was Parks and Recreation Director Troy Houtman.
The video features pictures of the mangled truck, and Frye, who was driving at the time, describing what happened.
“It was a snowy morning and we were taking our time on the Turnpike,” Frye recounts. “Roads were actually getting a little clearer . . . We were only going 45, maybe 50 at the max. But as I was changing lanes to a more clear section of roadway, driving over some slush. . .”
Tuttle picks up the story there: “. . . we could feel the pickup just slide and we ended up slamming into the concrete barrier . . .”
Frye again: “. . . and airbags deployed, the car bounced and flipped around and we did a 180, bounced again, then came to a rest.”
Tuttle said she suffered a concussion, sprained neck, bruising and a friction burn across her neck where her seatbelt held her in place.
“But even at the ER, the doctor said that if I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt, it would have been much worse,” she said.
The video also features Wichita Police spokesman Charley Davidson demonstrating how to use a seat belt.
On Friday afternoon, two days after it posted, the video had 17 views, including four by a Wichita Eagle reporter in the preparation of this story.
This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
