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News -
Miami County News
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Written by Brian McCauley
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Wednesday, 21 January 2009 08:00 |
Five people were killed on Miami County roads and highways in 2008, the second-lowest figure in more than a decade.
The statistic continues a trend of single-digit traffic fatalities since U.S. Highway 169 was expanded to four lanes in late 2003. Prior to that, there was a nine-year span from 1995 to 2003 that saw double-digit fatalities in all years but one, including a record-setting 19 traffic deaths in 2003.
Undersheriff Mark Schmidt also said cars are safer now than they have been in the past, and he stressed the importance of wearing a seat belt, which greatly increases the odds of surviving a serious accident.
People killed in 2008 in traffic accidents on Miami County roads and highways were:
- Joshua Brown, 31, Osawatomie, was killed on April 28 after he was thrown from an all-terrain vehicle he was driving just north of Osawatomie. According to a Miami County Sheriff’s Office report, Brown was driving south on O’Neal Avenue just before 6 p.m. when he struck a power pole guide wire, throwing him from the vehicle. Brown, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, hit the pole and was taken by air ambulance to Overland Park Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
- Joshua Morris, 20, and Christopher E. Minor, 23, both of Osawatomie, were killed in a one-vehicle accident July 22 southwest of Paola. According to a sheriff’s office report, a 2000 Ford Focus was traveling west on 319th Street at 8:33 p.m. when the driver lost control of the vehicle after passing over the railroad crossing east of the 319th Street and Lookout Road intersection. The vehicle hit a culvert in the north ditch and rolled several times, ejecting the two occupants. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. It is not known which was the driver.
- Charles Clayton, 14, rural Wellsville, was killed in a one-vehicle accident Sept. 20 on Crescent Hill Road north of 263rd Street. According to a sheriff’s office report, a 1996 Pontiac Grand Am was traveling north on Crescent Hill Road at 10:40 p.m. when the driver lost control of the vehicle on the gravel road, causing it to overturn in a ditch. Clayton was ejected from the vehicle and taken by air ambulance to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Three other teenagers also were injured in the accident.
- Michael Anderson, 29, Paola, was killed in a one-vehicle accident Dec. 13 north of Somerset. According to a sheriff’s office report, the accident occurred at 12:45 a.m. at the intersection of Kansas Highway 68 and Somerset Road, where the vehicle crashed into a rock wall embankment and caught fire. Anderson was pronounced dead at the scene.
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