The Kansas Highway Patrol worked a number of crashes in western Kansas after a storm system brought snow and blizzard conditions.
Trooper Tod Hileman said in a social media post that Troop D worked 23 crashes on Monday, with 20 of them involving semi tractor-trailers and the others involving passenger cars. That number did not include slide-offs that did not result in damage. A KHP vehicle was hit by a semi while a trooper was working a non-injury crash involving several vehicles in Gove County. That happened at Milepost 99 on Interstate 70. Hileman said the trooper was not in the vehicle at the time and was not hurt.
An Iowa woman was killed Monday afternoon in a crash on a slick highway in Morton County. The KHP said a pickup hit a patch of ice on U.S. Highway 56, went left of center and hit an SUV head-on. A passenger in the SUV, 64-year-old Loretta Panther of Iowa City, was killed. Two other people from the SUV and the driver of the pickup were taken to the Morton County Hospital in Elkhart for treatment of their injuries.
More crashes and slide-offs were reported Tuesday morning as roads remained slick from snow and ice.
Snow and icy conditions forced officials to close Interstate 70 westbound from Hays and eastbound from the Colorado border for a time on Monday. The highway was back open Tuesday morning, but there were still blowing snow conditions with some snow cover.
Snowfall amounts ranged from 3.5 inches to 7.5 inches across northwest Kansas.
Some school districts in western Kansas were closed for Tuesday or planning a late start.
[ photo: KHP Trooper Tod Hileman, KanDrive.gov – X ]
