Wabaunsee County, KS : 5 dead, 1 injured on Interstate 70 near Maple Hill in Wabaunsee County on Sunday, 1st March, 2020

Five people died and one person suffered serious injuries after a head-on crash Sunday on Interstate 70 near Maple Hill in Wabaunsee County.

According to a Kansas Highway Patrol report, a 2001 Ford F150 truck driven by Armando Mascote, 20, of Council Grove, was heading east in the westbound lane of I-70, about a 1/2 mile east of Maple Hill, at 6:40 a.m. It is unclear why Mascote was driving in the opposite direction.

The report said Mascote’s truck hit a van, a 1999 Ford Econoline E350, carrying five people straight on. The truck stopped in the median, “fully engulfed” in flames.Officials declared five people dead at the scene, including Mascote; Jacinto Sanchez-Diaz, 33, of Topeka; Jose Sanchez-Diaz, 29, of Topeka; Francisco Rosa-Mejia, 18, of Topeka; and Cervando Flores, 19 of Topeka. Emergency responders took one of the van passengers, Santos Mendoza Capetillo, 37, of Lillington, North Carolina, to Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka for treatment of suspected serious injuries.

The report said none of the van occupants were wearing seat belts and Mascote was.

Troopers said they had been notified of the truck traveling the wrong way on the road but were not able to catch up with it before the collision.


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