Ice contributes to pickup, semi accident Tuesday

    Icy road conditions and wind were contributing factors in a Tuesday morning accident between Imperial and Wauneta.
    The Chase County Sheriff’s Office, Imperial EMS and Imperial Volunteer Fire Department were dispatched at 7:58 a.m. to an initially reported rollover accident on Highway 6 at mile marker 35.5 just east of Enders, said Sheriff Kevin Mueller.
    After arriving at the scene, however, first responders found it to be a two-vehicle accident involving a semi and pickup.
    A westbound 1993 Ford Ranger pickup was driven by Michael Herrin, 58, of Palisade.
    Herrin told officers he met several semis traveling east on the highway, and when they started to pass by him, the wind caused his pickup to sway, and slide on the ice, heading into the front of one semi, then hitting its trailer before rolling one time in the north ditch.
    “The pickup was on its side in the north ditch and the semi was blocking the eastbound lane,” Mueller said.
    The driver in the last semi in the convoy stopped and assisted Herrin out of his pickup by breaking the back window with a crowbar, he told officers.
    Driver of the semi struck in the accident was Joseph Eller, 32, of Luray, Kansas who was driving a 2000 Kenworth.
    Mueller said Eller was hauling 37 cattle, which had to be off-loaded from the trailer.
    Both vehicles were considered total losses, removed by Sinner’s Paint & Body Shop and taken to Wauneta, he said.
    Herrin was transported by EMS to Chase County Community Hospital, where he was treated and released. The semi driver had no injuries, the sheriff reported.
    Emergency management also assisted at the scene.
    Wauneta fire and EMS were paged to assist, but were called back, he said.