Accident caught on live TV


Kim Wilhelm
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Wednesday, September 15, 2004


A crash caught on camera shows why so many are concerned about the safety of the intersection. On Eyewitness News at 6, Eyewitness News Reporter Matt Mauro was reporting live at the intersection of 119th West and 53rd North in Sedgwick County. Tuesday night, a Maize High School student was seriously hurt when her car collided with a truck.

Matt was showing viewers what some believe makes the intersection unsafe when a car and truck hit right in front of him. Matt and his photographer were standing just to the side of the stop sign. One car appears to be moving through the stop sign at 119th. The truck is westbound on 53rd, as a van turns onto 119th, a safe distance away. Right after that van makes its turn, the car moves onto 53rd, right in front of the truck. The impact pushes the car into the ditch and the truck stops in the ditch on the other side of 53rd.

As of Wednesday night, the man in the car is in critical condition. The truck driver was not hurt. The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department is wrapping up the investigation. The preliminary cause of the accident is that the driver of the car failed to yield. Eyewitness News showed the tape to Sgt. Jonathan Cherney of the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department. Cherney went through the video footage frame by frame.

Looking at the videotape, Cherney says the accident was caused when the driver of the car rolls right through the stop sign.

“In this particular accident, I don't see him coming to a complete stop,” said Cherney. “He still needs to make sure it's safe to go before proceeding and obviously in this case, it was not safe nor was it clear.”

Authorities know it’s a dangerous intersection but Cherney says until people pay attention, all the warning signs in the world won’t make a difference.

“My deputies are constantly stopping people for rolling through stop signs,” said Cherney. “People get extremely upset at the deputies for getting tickets for that, but we work so many bad accidents and when you're doing that, you're not taking an extra look back and forth. If you just take that extra second to look, these things would be avoidable.”

Cherney says from what he saw on the video, the driver didn’t appear to be distracted by anything. He says it looks like he just didn’t come to a complete stop and then pulled into the intersection when it was too late.

Eyewitness News also talked with members of the Sedgwick County Commission about the accident. A traffic engineer will study the safety of the intersection and changes could happen in the next month.

But again, Cherney says that won’t do any good if drivers don’t come to a complete stop and give themselves time to look both ways.

Immediately after the accident, Matt and photographer Kevin Rempe, were quick to help the accident victims. Matt finished his report and went to check on the drivers. Kevin called 911 and grabbed a fire extinguisher from our live truck after seeing chemicals from the airbag, which appeared to be smoke.

Count on Eyewitness News to check on the safety of this intersection and follow up on this accident.