Traveling down a Kansas highway earlier, came up on a horrible accident.

[imanamerican63]

Not sure what happened, sadly there were no survivors. I have no words.

[MissB]

1. How horrible.

I assume you weren’t first on the scene.

[imanamerican63]

3. No, I was 2 minutes or so behind.

[applegrove]

2. .

[byronius]

4. You reminded me of something I had read.

I was researching for a screenplay and came across a very short 1948 article in the San Antonio Light about two fourteen year olds who were killed in a crash while driving their parent's car some two or three hundred miles from home, all the way across the state.

Very short blurb. No mention of whether they had a license, or who else was hurt, or any other detail. But I put my own imagination into it and realized it must have been a devastating event for the family.

[hlthe2b]

6. My uncle (who I never met) died after hitting a bridge embankment many decades ago

He'd been with a friend picking up food/supplies to celebrate my Father's birthday. This happened so long before I or any of my cohort of cousins were born, but we always wondered about Neil--whose framed photo was always first and foremost on my grandmother's tv.

Recently, while doing some ancestry research, I came across his digitized death certificate (only recently have the older ones been digitized)... It was eery to read-- along with the police report and small article from the nearest small town newspaper to the crash. Not a lot of detail, but enough to realize how damned horrific it must have been for my grandparents and especially my Father, who never got over it.

Any death is horrific for the family, but these violent motor vehicle accidents--which theoretically could have been prevented--are among the worst.

[byronius]

12. The research I was doing was about my uncle's death at the hands of a drunk driver in 1948.

He was nineteen, hit by a young man with an open bottle of booze in a speeding car and thrown 50 feet. It totally destroyed the family. My grandmother went a little crazy, ended up getting shock treatments for two months. My father was seven, grew up having nightmares about his brother and suffered serious mental illness later in life.

Both my aunts became psychotherapists. But the impact of their brother's death still haunts the family.

[hlthe2b]

14. Eerily similar. My uncle would have been 22.

He hit the bridge embankment head on. I always wondered about alcohol, but I never dared ask and the death certificate makes no mention. Those rural two lane highways were treacherous--especially back then, so it may have purely been an accident.

I know my grandmother and grandfather had to go and identify. An aunt later told me that my grandfather cried, but my grandmother did not... She was a kind lady who lived to nearly a 100 years old, but was the stronger of the two--always. Still, that saddened me to hear. She was clearly upset because the death certificate had to have their names/signatures at the time and she didn't notice that my Uncle Neil's name was misspelled.

But, yeah.. No one in the family--even after all remaining "boys" went to serve in WWII (and thankfully returned) were the same. Reading the police report is so matter-of-fact it is hard to read even now.

The final irony: my last remaining Aunt died in a one-car accident along those same rural two-lane highways only a few years ago.

[samnsara]

5. so sad.

[madaboutharry]

7. It shakes you up and you never forget it.

When I was in college, I was driving on the Freeway and was about 10 cars back from a terrible accident where someone on a motorcycle was killed. The body was in the middle of the lane with a white sheet over it and cops standing around.

I still see it.

[imanamerican63]

8. Update to the story.

I was told 3 had died but one was in serious condition.

[MuseRider]

9. What part of Kansas or

what highway? I am out and about today and would rather miss this.

It seems there are so many more than the used to be.

[imanamerican63]

10. North of Topeka on US 75.

[MuseRider]

11. Thank you.

I was North earlier then West now in Lawrence so I am good. Headed home South soon. I am sorry you had to see this. I helped pull a guy out of a burning car about 10 years ago. We got him out but not his buddy who was caught in the upside down car that then blew up. It is hard to forget these things.

[leftyladyfrommo]

13. It is awful to see something like that.

You can't get it out of your head.

I haven 't heard anything about it yet here in KCMO. I am sure it will be in the news.