A suspected drunk driver who was going the wrong way on Interstate 35 caused a three-vehicle crash in Olathe early Sunday morning.
According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a 21-year-old Shawnee man was driving a 2020 Honda Civic southbound in the northbound lanes of I-35 when the crash occurred.
At about 2:52 a.m. Sunday, Highway Patrol troopers say the man drove the Honda the wrong way on the inside lane just south of 119th Street when vehicles driving in the correct direction started changing lanes to avoid oncoming headlights.
In the Highway Patrol’s online crash log, troopers say a 29-year-old Parkville, Missouri, woman was driving a 2015 Nissan Altima northbound on the inside lane. She attempted to move to the inside shoulder but was still hit by the Honda.
The impact of the crash sent the wrong-way Honda toward the outside lane, where it struck a 2014 Nissan Versa being driven by a 59-year-old Olathe woman who had already changed lanes to the right after noticing the oncoming Honda.
The Honda rolled onto its roof and finally came to a stop in the center lane.
Olathe police, firefighters and Johnson County Med-Act paramedics arrived at the crash scene, reporting that three vehicles were heavily damaged.
Police closed the northbound lanes of I-35 at Santa Fe Street due to the amount of debris and damaged vehicles spread across all lanes.
Firefighters removed a door from the Honda to extricate the man who had been driving in the wrong direction from his overturned car.
The Highway Patrol’s crash log says the man suffered a “suspected serious injury” and was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance.
Johnson County Med-Act also transported the 59-year-old woman who was driving the Nissan Versa to a different area hospital with what Troopers describe as a “suspected minor injury.”
No one else was reported injured in the crash.
Olathe Police are investigating the wrong-way driver for possibly driving under the influence.
According to recorded radio traffic, the first calls to 911 reporting a wrong-way driver were received in northern Johnson County at about 2:40 a.m., when the Honda was seen driving southbound in the northbound lanes of I-35 near Lamar Avenue.
The crash scene at 119th Street is 12 miles south of the Lamar Avenue exit.
The crash was cleared and all lanes reopened at approximately 5:30 a.m.
