Three people are dead after a head-on crash on the Kansas Turnpike Saturday afternoon.
The crash happened just after 1:30 p.m. at mile marker 26.4 in Sumner County, north of the Belle Plaine rest area. The Kansas Highway Patrol says Sheena Harroald, 37 of Wichita, was driving northbound when her vehicle went left of center in the head-to-head construction zone. Her vehicle clipped a southbound vehicle then hit a second head-on. Harroald died at the scene. Two passengers in her vehicle, Wanda Tidwell, 86 of Park City, and Nathelia McIntosh, 62 of Wichita, also died in the crash. A third passenger, Shala Harroald, 42 of Wichita, was taken to a Wichita hospital with serious injuries.
The driver in the clipped vehicle and the driver of the vehicle who was hit head-on were hospitalized with minor injuries, while a passenger in the vehicle hit head-on had serious injuries.
Traffic was backed up significantly in both directions and had to be diverted.