A serious crash is being investigated on Kansas Highway 7 in northwestern Shawnee for the second time in less than a week.
The latest crash occurred on Monday evening, when a southbound Jaguar sedan crossed into oncoming lanes and crashed into a railroad bridge between 43rd and 47th streets.
The Kansas Highway Patrol said it happened at about 5:27 p.m. and identified the vehicle as a 2021 Jaguar XF mid-size luxury sedan traveling southbound on K-7 just south of 43rd Street.
According to the highway patrol’s online crash log, the vehicle crossed into the northbound lanes and hit the bridge barrier wall. The car then rolled onto its roof and caught fire.
The bridge carries K-7 traffic over the BNSF Railway’s Topeka Subdivision.
Recorded radio traffic stated that several witnesses to the crash stopped and were able to pull the injured driver out of the vehicle before it became engulfed in flames.
A Johnson County Med-Act ambulance, with the assistance of a Shawnee firefighter, transported the injured 62-year-old man to an area hospital in critical condition.
The highway patrol lists the injured driver as a Shawnee resident.
According to recorded radio traffic, both of the man’s legs were broken in the crash, and he is being investigated for possibly driving under the influence.
Troopers said the man was wearing a seat belt, and his injuries are listed as “suspected serious.”
Shawnee firefighters worked for about 15 minutes to fully extinguish the car fire and a small grass fire that spread below the bridge near the railroad tracks.
Shawnee Police and the Kansas Department of Transportation closed the northbound lanes of K-7 at 47th Street as Highway Patrol troopers investigated the crash scene.
A tow truck removed the crashed car, and both northbound lanes reopened at about 8 p.m.
Shawnee Police also investigated a two-vehicle crash that killed two people at the intersection of Kansas Highway 7 and 47th Street on Wednesday, March 5.
