A former Emporia resident was one of two road workers killed in an accident this morning south of Lawrence.
Tyrone Thomas Korte, 30, of Seneca, was killed by a hit-and-run driver while at a repaving job on U.S. Highway 59 near Pleasant Grove. Korte was an engineering technician who graduated from Emporia State University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and had worked for KDOT since 2002.
The pickup truck that hit Korte also killed a contractor’s employee at the site. The employee’s name has not been released pending notification of his family.
The accident happened just before 10 a.m. At 10:12 a.m., according to press reports and the Kansas Highway Patrol, a state trooper saw the pickup truck thought to have been involved in the accident. The trooper tried to pull the truck over as it headed west on U.S. 56, but he ended up chasing it instead for about 10 miles. Osage County sheriff’s deputies joined the chase, which ended after about 10 minutes when the truck ran over stop sticks that had been placed in the road by law enforcement. The truck blew out two tires and stopped two miles later.
Two women were taken into custody in the incident. The names of the women have not yet been released.
This was the first fatal accident involving KDOT workers since Aug. 1, 2005, when Emporia resident Richard Cunningham was killed while getting ready to change a sign on Kansas Highway 130. According to the Highway Patrol, Cunningham and his co-worker, Gary Burroughs of Emporia, had just stepped out of their truck when a tractor-trailer slammed into the vehicle, pinning the men underneath. Burroughs suffered severe injuries but lived.
The driver in that accident, Leonard Marks of Manhattan, was acquitted of vehicular homicide and battery by a jury in Lyon County District Court this year. Marks was found guilty of speeding and failing to yield the right-of-way to a construction vehicle.
According to KDOT, 13 of its employees have been killed in work zone crashes over the last 25 years.