Apr 19, 2023

19-year-old dead, 3 injured after head-on crash on Kan. highway

Posted Apr 19, 2023 11:30 PM

UPDATED 11:16 a.m. Thursday to update seat belt usage initially reported incorrectly by the KHP.

KIOWA COUNTY—One person died in an accident just after 7:30a.m. Wednesday in Kiowa County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2018 Chevy Tahoe driven by Jesse Eugene Hall, 18, Wisconsin, was was westbound on U.S. 54 fourteen miles east of Greensburg.

The driver, in an attempt to avoid a westbound vehicle stopped  on the highway, traveled left of center into the eastbound lane. The Chevy and a 2006 Chrysler Pacifica driven by Cody William Metz, 19, Washington, Kansas, collided head-on.  Both vehicles came to rest on the south shoulder of U.S. 54.

A passenger in the Chevy identified as Jaidyn Barz, 19, Wisconsin, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to the Regional Forensics Center. 

EMS transported to Hall a Wichita hospital, Metz to the hospital in Pratt and a second passenger in the Chey Jonathan Gajeuski, 19, Wisconsin, to the hospital in Greensburg. 

The driver and the passengers in the Tahoe were properly restrained, according to the KHP.