Topeka, KS : Dustin Keith Gillespie, 36, killed in car-semi, rear-end crash on North Topeka highway on Monday morning, December 12, 2016

A Topeka man died late Monday morning after the car he was driving rear-ended a slow-moving semi-trailer on a North Topeka highway, authorities said.

The fatality victim was identified as Dustin Keith Gillespie, 36.

The crash occurred at 10:55 a.m. on N.W. US-24 highway at the Furman Road overpass. The location was about a quarter-mile east of the N.W. 25th Street exit and about a mile west of the the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant.

Kansas Highway Patrol Lt. Adam Winters said at the scene that two vehicles, a 1987 Peterbilt semi-trailer and a silver 2013 Volkswagen Passat, were westbound on US-24 when the semi slowed down because of a mechanical problem.

The Passat rear-ended the semi and upon impact left the highway to the right, traveling down a steep, grassy embankment on the north side of the road and coming to rest facing north in a field.

The driver of the VW, later identified as Gillespie, was taken by American Medical Response ambulance to Stormont Vail Hospital in critical condition.

He was pronounced dead a short time later. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol’s Online Crash Log, Gillespie wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

The semi driver, identified as Chad Darwin Hanson, 45, of Bristow, Iowa, was reported uninjured. The patrol said Hanson was wearing a seat belt.

Both drivers were alone in their vehicles.

Traffic on westbound US-24 highway was allowed to proceed past the area in a single lane for about an hour as crews investigated the crash. Once it was determined a fatality had occurred, about noon, both westbound lanes were shut down as the KHP conducted its crash investigation. Traffic was back open by 3:40 p.m.

US-24 is a four-lane, divided highway at the crash location, with two lanes for both east- and westbound traffic.

Source :
KHP IDs Topeka man killed in car-semi, rear-end crash on North Topeka highway