Dust blinds drivers; Cattle truck rolls west of Byron

Hardy and Superior fire departments and the Superior Rescue Squad were among emergency service agencies responding to a call for assistance during the storm Sunday night.

The call for help came in from an apparently disoriented person reporting a semitrailer truck had overturned along Highway 8 someplace east of Superior but west of Chester.

Responders found an overturned truck loaded with about 35 head of fat cattle bound for a Wichita meat packing plant about one mile east of the Thayer-Nuckolls County line. The driver apparently was not injured but approximately eight head of cattle died.

The truck was one of three traveling in a group when they encountered blinding dust in the advance of the storm. A weather station near the accident scene reported wind gusts of about 70 miles per hour.

The driver was apparently blinded by the dust, lost his bearings and ran off the road.

It was the second call within a week for the Superior Volunteer Fire Department. A few days earlier the department had been called for a ditch fire near the intersection of the Birch (Olive Hill) Road and Highway 14.

The Ruskin Volunteer Fire Department was called to a ditch fire along the Oak-Ruskin Road. Fortunately both fires were quickly brought under control.

At least two semi-trucks overturned in this area on Sunday. We don’t have the particulars but a semi overturned earlier in the day near where the Kyle Railroad crosses Kansas Highway 128 south of Burr Oak.

 

Reader Comments(0)