Emporia, Kans. — What started out as road rage turned into a rollover car accident just before 9 p.m. Tuesday and led to the arrest of two men.
Eyewitnesses say a car went airborne after it swerved around another car and hit one of the decorative brick pillars at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Merchant Street.
Andrea Ybarra of Emporia said she was on Commercial Street facing north, waiting in the left turn lane to turn west onto Sixth Avenue, when the incident began.
“For some reason, I thought the light had turned green and started to go,” Ybarra said. “Then I realized it was still red so I backed up to get out of the intersection.”
Ybarra said that’s when the car behind her, a white Chevy Cavalier driven by Tony G. Rosenbaum, 25, of El Dorado drove forward and tapped the back of her car.
“They tapped the back of my car three or four times,” Ybarra said.
The driver of the car behind the Cavalier was 17-year old Emporian Laramie Watson. He and his passenger, Bailey Wiggins, 16, of Americus had the same story.
“They rammed her car a couple of times and then threw it into reverse,” Watson said. “I thought they were going to hit me.”
When the light turned green, Ybarra said, all three cars turned the corner.
“The white car floored it,” Watson said. “They flew around the corner and swerved into the far lane.”
Ybarra said someone in the car was screaming at her and even threw something. That’s when she slowed down.
“The light turned green and they came right up next to me,” Ybarra said. “Something flew out towards my car, I slowed down and — boom — their car was in the air.”
Wiggins said the car hit the brick pillar and went airborne. It then turned upside down in the air and landed on its top.
“It went really high,” Wiggins said. “They were completely upside down before they landed and then they spun a few times.”
“It scared the s--- out of me,” Ybarra said.
Lee Schaefer, who was heading east on Sixth Avenue, saw the accident happen.
“It appeared that they were possibly going to turn (right) onto Merchant,” he said. “That’s when they hit the pillar.”
Schaefer said by the time he pulled over and came back to the accident, people were already around the car, including bicycle cops Jeff Illk and Robbie Turner.
“The bike cops were there within 30 seconds,” he said. “The guy was out of the car before the woman.”
Watson said the man in the vehicle, Rosenbaum, rolled out of the car almost immediately. He and a passenger, Shelly R. Eichman of El Dorado, were treated at the scene by Emporia rescue workers for minor injuries. Both walked away from the accident.
According to the Emporia Police Department, Rosenbaum was arrested on suspicion of reckless driving, transporting an open container of alcohol and disorderly conduct. Gary A. Rosenbaum, 23, of Emporia, who arrived at the accident scene later, was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Several police, fire and rescue workers worked the scene, while a crowd gathered to watch. At least 50 people stood at all four corners of the intersection. Items from the vehicle — included a bag, clothes, a coffee mug, cooler, a case of beer and open beer bottles — were strewn across the street.