RUSSELL COUNTY — A man died in a construction site accident just after 2 p.m. Tuesday in Russell County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Caterpillar 940B driven by Tyler Darren Jennings, 28, Valley Falls, Kansas, was traveling north up a hill at a construction site east of U.S. Highway 281 north of the river.
For unknown reasons, the vehicle lost power, rolled down a hill to the south and struck another Caterpillar 940 driven by 57-year-old Jose N. Ramirez Navarrete.
A man identified as a passenger of the second Caterpillar 53-year-old Hector Cesar Fraire Montelongo of Mesquite, New Mexico, was injured and airlifted to Russell Regional Hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
The KHP reported it was unknown if Fraire Montelongo was on the Caterpillar's platform or on the ground next to the vehicle at time of collision.
Jennings and Navarrete were not injured.