KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 47-year-old man died in a crash early Tuesday in Franklin County after his pickup truck collided with a semi tractor-trailer that jackknifed after hitting a deer.
John Brian Yaple, of Harrisonville, Missouri, was killed in the crash, which occurred around 5:30 a.m. on Kansas 68, about seven miles east of Ottawa, the Kansas Highway Patrol said in a crash report.
The semi was traveling westbound on Kansas 68 when a deer ran onto the roadway, the highway patrol said. After the semi struck the deer, the driver pressed on the brakes, which locked up and caused the semi and the trailer to jackknife.
The semi went into the eastbound lanes and struck a guardrail, causing it to jackknife again and become wedged on a bridge between Utah and Vermont roads.
Yaple, driving a Ford F-150, struck the rear end of the trailer, the highway patrol said. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, a 30-year-old man from Minnesota, was taken to an area hospital with a possible injury.
