A Shawnee man was killed in a crash on Interstate 435 in Wyandotte County on Tuesday afternoon.
The Kansas Highway Patrol says Jacob Robert Thomas Rhodes, 21, of Shawnee, was killed in a single-vehicle crash at about 1:15 p.m.
According to the highway patrol’s online crash log, a 2006 Hyundai Sonata driven by Rhodes was northbound on I-435 about one mile north of Kansas Highway 32 in the far-right lane.
Troopers said the vehicle “veered” across the center lane and into the inside lane before entering the grassy median and hitting a bridge pillar at Kansas Avenue.
A news release from the Edwardsville Police Department said that their officers, along with Edwardsville Fire and EMS, arrived to find one person with critical injuries.
“Despite their efforts, one driver was pronounced dead at the scene,” Maj. Jeff Short of the Edwardsville Police Department said in the release. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families affected by this tragic event.”
Troopers said Rhodes was alone in the car, and no other vehicles were involved in the crash.
All lanes of I-435 were closed at Kansas Avenue as highway patrol troopers investigated the scene.
Traffic was diverted up the exit ramps to Kansas Avenue and then back onto the entrance ramps to go around the area of the investigation.
By 4 p.m., northbound traffic was slow back to Holliday Drive in Shawnee, and southbound traffic was at a crawl back to Interstate 70 in Kansas City, Kansas.
All lanes of I-435 were back open by 5:30 p.m.
