KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three people were killed and several others were critically injured on Monday afternoon when a semi truck failed to stop for congested traffic on U.S. Highway 71 in Kansas City and slammed into three vehicles, the Kansas City Police Department said. The crash happened shortly before 3:30 p.m. near where the highway — also known as Bruce R. Watkins Drive — passes above East 19th Street, close to downtown.

Source: The Kansas City Star (via Tribune News Service)

Capt. Jake Becchina, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department, said in a news release that the semi truck failed to stop for an area of congested traffic on U.S. 71 and slammed into the vehicles ahead of it. Becchina called it a “major traffic incident during rush hour.” The driver of the semi was taken into custody on an investigative hold, police said.

All three deaths were in the same minivan

In an updated account later on Monday evening, Becchina said three passengers in a Honda minivan died: two were pronounced dead at the scene, and a third later died of their injuries at a hospital. The driver of the minivan and two other passengers were hospitalized in critical condition. The driver of a Honda CR-V was also taken to a hospital in critical condition, while the driver of a Ford SUV was listed in stable condition.

The first count from the scene, given late in the afternoon by Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins of the Kansas City Fire Department, was two people killed and eight patients taken to area hospitals — two with minor injuries, four with serious injuries and two in critical condition. The death toll rose to three as the evening update accounted for the minivan passengers. Police had not released the names of those killed or injured in the reports available Monday night.

Northbound lanes of U.S. 71 were closed while first responders worked at the scene, and Hopkins said the highway would stay closed for a significant amount of time while investigators documented the wreck. The closure hit the evening rush hour on one of Kansas City's main north–south freeways, which carries commuters between downtown and the city's southern neighbourhoods and suburbs.

Why this corridor matters to truckers

U.S. 71 — the Bruce R. Watkins Drive freeway — is a working freight and commuter corridor through the heart of Kansas City, and rear-end collisions into slowed or stopped traffic are among the most deadly crash patterns involving heavy trucks anywhere in the United States: a loaded semi needs far more distance to stop than a car, and a queue that forms just beyond a rise or an overpass can leave a driver with only seconds to react. That is exactly the sequence police describe here — congestion ahead, and a truck that did not stop in time.

For the Punjabi and other South Asian truck drivers who run Midwest corridors through Kansas City every week — many of them owner-operators on tight delivery windows — the case is a stark reminder of the two risks that end careers: following distance in stop-and-go freeway traffic, and the legal exposure that follows a fatal crash, which in Missouri can extend from licence action to criminal charges once investigators finish their reconstruction.

What happens next: Kansas City police said the department would release more information as the investigation proceeds. Detectives are reconstructing the collision, the semi driver's custody status and any charges will be decided from that work, and the names of the victims are expected to be released once families have been notified. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when police publish those details.

Source: KMBC 9 News, Kansas City