(image credit: Kansas Highway Patrol)
Five people were killed and 13 others were injured in a one-vehicle accident in Osage County over the weekend. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the accident happened around 9:00am Sunday, southwest of Williamsburg, on I-35 northbound around milepost 167. The cause of the crash is still under investigation. The victims were all members of a Minnesota family of motocross sports enthusiasts, traveling in a vehicle that consisted of a Freightliner box truck set up with living quarters, towing a trailer. The vehicle left the roadway, struck the metal guardrail, then a concrete bridge rail. It went over the bridge rail, then down into a creek. The truck landed on its wheels, but the trailer landed on the driver’s side, in front of the truck. The thirteen people injured in the crash were transported to area hospitals in Ottawa, Topeka, and the Kansas City metro area.
Officials work the scene of a Minnesota-bound motor home that crashed into a ravine off Interstate 35 in northeast Kansas. (AP Photo / KMBC-TV)
A friend of the family says the group was taking a vacation to see a motocross race. Mary Jo Marks tells The Associated Press that she and her husband live about a mile away from the family. She says Pauline Kerber home-schooled the children until several years ago. Kerber's late husband, Glen, operated an auto store on the family property. Marks says the family lives about a half-mile from the Scott County, Minnesota fairgrounds, which hosts motocross races. She says the family had planned to spend their spring break on a family motocross trip.