Truck driver killed in Tuesday night crash in southwest Kansas

RUSH CENTER, Kan. (WIBW) - A truck driver was killed Tuesday night in a crash in Pawnee County in southwest Kansas, authorities said.

The crash was reported at 7:02 p.m. Tuesday on US-183 highway, about 11 miles south of Rush Center.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a 2010 Toyota passenger car was northbound on US-183 and was passing a 2000 International semitrailer in a no-passing zone when a southbound vehicle went into the west ditch to avoid a head-on collision with the Toyota.

The semitrailer went partially onto the east shoulder and the driver lost control of the vehicle, which over-corrected, crossed the roadway and entered the west ditch, where it came to rest on its top facing southwest.

The driver of the semi, Nathaniel J. Dunlay, 40, of Torrington, Wyo., was pronounced dead at the scene. The patrol said Dunlay wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the Toyota, Barbara N. Westeman, 60, of Syracuse, was reported uninjured. The patrol said Westeman was wearing a seat belt.

The Kansas Highway Patrol’s online crash log didn’t provide information on the make or model of the southbound vehicle that entered the ditch in an effort to avoid a head-on crash.