A Topeka man
was killed late Thursday on Interstate 470 in southwest Topeka when
his car collided head-on with a car being driven the wrong way by a
Seneca man, police said.
The Seneca man was critically hurt.
Naveen P. Engoor, 24, of Topeka, was declared dead at the scene
of the collision on I-470 just west of S.W. Gage Boulevard, said
police Lt. John Sidwell.
The driver of the other car -- identified by police as Tom
Garber, 23, of Seneca -- was a patient Friday at St. Francis
Hospital and Medical Center, where a nursing supervisor said no
information was being released about his condition at his family's
request.
Garber's passenger, Amber Garber, 23, of Seneca, was listed in
satisfactory condition Friday at Stormont-Vail Regional Health
Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Sidwell said police found indications that alcohol was involved
in the accident, and tests were being completed to determine if
alcohol in fact was a factor.
Officers were called to the scene at 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
Sidwell said Engoor had been westbound on I-470 driving a green
1995 Honda Civic when it collided head-on with a gray 1985 Pontiac
Grand Am that Tom Garber had been driving east in the westbound
lanes.
The police Accident Reconstruction Unit on Friday was
investigating circumstances of the crash, Sidwell said. It wasn't
clear where or why Tom Garber had entered I-470 going the wrong way.
The accident forced police to block off traffic on westbound
I-470. Firefighters extricated Tom Garber from the wreckage.
American Medical Response ambulances took Tom Garber to St. Francis
and Amber Garber to Stormont-Vail, Sidwell said.
Engoor and Amber Garber had been wearing seat belts, while Tom
Garber had not, he said.
Engoor became Topeka's third traffic fatality of the year. The
city had recorded two traffic fatalities by this time in 1999 and
finished the year with 11.
Thursday's wreck occurred about two miles southeast of the site
of a December 1997 fatality crash that also involved a car going the
wrong way on I-470.
Police said a 42-year-old Topeka man was driving west on
eastbound I-470 early Dec. 17, 1997, when his car and an eastbound
semi-tractor truck collided.
The man was declared dead at the scene. The driver of the
semi-tractor wasn't hurt. Tests indicated that the driver who was
killed in that accident had been legally intoxicated.
