A Douglass teenager died this week as a result of injuries he sustained in a high-speed accident, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said today.
Christian Minahan, 14, died at a Wichita hospital after suffering serious injuries in a Tuesday evening accident, the sheriff and news reports said.
Around 7:20 p.m. Minahan was driving a 1995 Chevrolet pickup at speeds up to 100 mph on S. Maple, a gravel road located just outside the town of Douglass, the sheriff said. Two friends, 13-year-old Kyle Roberts and 15-year-old Mathew Rudd, both of Douglass, were with Minahan when he lost control of the truck on the “wash-boarded, loose gravel” road, Murphy said. The truck hit an embankment, flipped over and all three boys were ejected from the truck.
Rudd received no serious injuries, but Roberts is “still in very critical condition,” the sheriff said. Murphy was unsure in which hospital Roberts was being treated.
Murphy said he believed Minahan had a driver’s permit, but was home alone when he took the truck.
“Mom and dad were not at home and kids get goofy ideas,” Murphy said. Then, “we wind up with tragic results.”
Butler County suffered an additional fatality on its roads Wednesday when a pickup driven by a 19-year-old man struck a semi west of Leon on Highway 400, the sheriff said. Leon is located just east of Augusta. Murphy did not release the man’s name.