Kansas

Car crash deaths fall nationwide, but in Kansas City they're 'destroying our communities'

Published

2 years ago

January 4, 2024

Car crash deaths fall nationwide, but in Kansas City they're 'destroying our communities'

About 100 Americans who woke up this morning will be dead by day’s end, crushed in steel, or tossed across a roadway. It’s like an airliner crashing every single day.

“It’s friends, its families, its neighbors, it’s coworkers,” said Russ Martin, Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations at the Governor’s Highway Safety Association.

Bad habits from the pandemic are driving up the death toll. Traffic fatalities had been trending down for decades, despite there being more people on the road logging more miles year by year.

The rates fluctuated, but the pandemic brought a 16-year high in 2021 — about 42,915 people, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The following year was almost as bad: there were only 120 fewer deaths in 2022.

The 2021 jump in roadway deaths was even sharper in Kansas City, where 103 people died on streets and highways that year. That was the highest number in at least three decades (and more than double the number killed in 2014).

In 2022 Kansas City’s total dropped to 90, but then, last year, wrecks killed 102 people in the city. During a year when traffic fatalities eased about 3% nationwide, they jumped 13% in Kansas City.

Risky habits drivers picked up during the pandemic have not abated here, according to police.

“The main causes that we’re seeing is speed, excessive speeds, impairment, and no seat belts,” said Kansas City Police Sergeant Johnathan Rivers.

That’s the big change since before the pandemic: the way people are acting behind the wheel. Speeders tend to be going faster than before, drinkers are drunker, there’s more marijuana and drug use. And of course, people are looking at their phones.

And while distracted, lawless driving is up, law enforcement is down.

In Kansas City, the police department’s traffic control division has shrunk to less than half the size it was four years ago, Rivers said.

“People feel that they can drive any way they want to since they don’t see officers on the highway as much as they used to,” he said.

It’s not just Kansas City. Police departments across the country report slumping staff totals after a wave of resignations and retirements in the wake of the pandemic and protests surrounding the murder of George Floyd. Rivers said traffic control divisions can be especially hard hit because they tend not to respond to priority emergency calls.

There is some good news about traffic fatalities.

“At a national level, they’re slightly down,” said Mark Chung, executive vice president of the roadway practice area at the National Safety Council.

It takes months to collect and verify crash data from around the country, but Chung said indications are that traffic fatalities eased around 3% in 2023, toward possibly about 40,000 deaths. Because Americans are driving more now, that’s a big improvement. But it’s still a lot worse than before the pandemic.

“The delta between that and pre-pandemic 2019 levels is around 6,000 or maybe even 7,000 lives,” said Chung.

And dangerous as it is to be riding in a car these days, walking across streets, or even along the sides of them, is much worse. Last year pedestrian deaths in the United States spiked to their highest number since 1981.

“In the past couple of years, we’ve been in the midst of a pedestrian safety crisis, pedestrians being struck and killed on roadways,” said Martin.

Martin said pedestrian fatalities spiked up almost 80% in a decade, leading to at least 7,508 pedestrian deaths last year.

Some of that carnage is related to factors that are driving up all traffic fatalities, chiefly bad driving habits. But pedestrian fatalities have been rising for years. Car designs and consumer choice are partly to blame.

“Cars are safer for occupants. They have not been for non-occupants,” said Chung. “And in fact, the last 20 years have been more dangerous for non-occupants.”

Those newer, tall, imposing, blunt-faced pickups and SUVs are particularly deadly compared to smaller sedans. They are 45% more likely to kill a pedestrian, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And they’re popular. SUVs and pickup trucks account for about two-thirds of new vehicle sales.

While the factors leading to increased traffic fatalities are well known, pushing them down is a complex problem. Traffic experts insist it is possible by improving road and vehicle designs, emergency response, and policing, and by somehow convincing 230 million American drivers to be careful. The National Safety Council has staked out a goal of running traffic fatalities all the way down to zero by 2050.

It can’t happen fast enough for people like KCPD’s Sgt. Rivers.

“It’s destroying our communities,” he said. “We see young lives snuffed out. We have to have it stop.”

Source link

Kansas

Chicken chain expanding to Kansas and five other Midwest states

Published

28 minutes ago

June 26, 2026

Press Room

Chicken chain expanding to Kansas and five other Midwest states

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Colorado-based chicken restaurant Birdcall is expanding into Kansas.

The company announced Friday its plans to expand into Kansas and five other Midwestern states over the next five years. Birdcall plans to add six to eight fast-casual restaurants in Wichita and Topeka.

“The Midwest represents a tremendous opportunity for Birdcall,” CEO Mark Lohmann said. “From our award-winning chicken sandwiches and other handcrafted menu offerings to our commitment to innovation and community, we believe Birdcall offers an experience that resonates with today’s guests and is a natural fit for the region.”

Other locations announced are:

Indiana – 10 to 15 restaurants across Indianapolis, Bloomington, Evansville and Fort Wayne
Missouri – Up to 18 restaurants across St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City
Nebraska – Seven to 10 restaurants across Omaha and Lincoln
Ohio – Up to 20 restaurants across Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo
Wisconsin – 10 to 15 restaurants across Milwaukee, Madison and Appleton

Birdcall’s menu features a variety of chicken sandwiches, chicken fingers and nuggets, salads, tater tots, fries, and more. The restaurant also makes its own in-house sauces and serves up draft beer and house-made margaritas, with happy hour specials.

The company said each restaurant will use self-service kiosks and occupy about 2,300 square feet, with indoor and outdoor seating that can serve up to 150 people.

Birdcall currently operates 17 restaurants across Colorado, Arizona and Texas.

For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here.

Source link

Kansas

Video shows disruption during Osawatomie City Council meeting with data center developer

Published

11 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Press Room

Video shows disruption during Osawatomie City Council meeting with data center developer

KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.

—

A video shared by a viewer, shows a resident speaking at the Osawatomie, Kansas City Council meeting being escorted out by police on Thursday evening.

The video shows a man holding a “Hell No Alcove” sign, while commenting about a blighted property, which according to public records is owned by Pacific Apartments, LLC, operating out of the same address as Alcove Development in Lawrence, Kansas.

KSHB 41

A video submitted by a viewers shows a resident being escorted out of a city of Osawatomie, Kansas council meeting that included an appearance from a data center developer.

Alcove Development is behind the effort to build a $1 billion, 283-acre data center development in Osawatomie’s northland property.

The video, shared by a viewer, goes on the show two law enforcement officers approaching the individual, who is Lee Brewer, at the podium, after he begins to yell, while the crowd joins in behind him. Lee Brewer reached out to KSHB 41 late Thursday night, identifying himself as the person who was escorted out.

Osawatomie, Kansas Police Chief Dave Stutteville is seen in the video also approaching the man.

KSHB 41 Miami County Reporter Ryan Gamboa reached out to the Police Chief, City Manager, and Mayor Nick Hampson for comment late on Thursday night and is waiting on a response.

Residents in contact with Gamboa attending the meeting shared the meeting was still in session after 9:30 p.m.

Thursday night’s meeting was the city and Alcove Development’s attempt at sharing potential benefits of a data center for the community.

Gamboa has long covered the data center project in Osawatomie, Kansas — and neighbors to the project have voiced their opposition to the proposed development.

This is the first time Alcove Development has approached the public, but not the first time it has worked with the city of Osawatomie.

In late 2025, Alcove Development approached the city with the project and weeks later, a pre-development agreement was signed giving Alcove exclusive rights to the development for three years.

But city council meeting records from 2023 show, the city of Osawatomie entered into a pre-development agreement with Alcove Development to redevelop a property known as Old Swenson School.

Alcove Development had six months to asses the condition of the property and determine a course of action for redevelopment, and the overall agreement would last 18 months, according to public records.

The pre-development agreements states, Alcove would consider asking for tax breaks on the project, including utilizing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

At the time, the property had sat in disrepair since 2016, according to the records, and was frequently found in violation of city code.

If the re-development were to fall through, the city would be on the hook to purchase the property from the developer for $25,000, with unclear total costs for infrastructure improvements.

KSHB 41 will follow up on the status on this project at a later date.

Earlier this week, Miami County Reporter Ryan Gamboa, sat down with Donna Ingram who doesn’t live far from the data center site.

Ingram expressed her concerns about the amount of infrastructure that would be built to operate a data center, and how it might overtake the land around her home.

She expressed concerns because the City of Osawtomie changed the public comment guidelines of a promise town hall with the developer.

“Watching this process play out is disheartening,” Ingram said in an interview on Monday. “A town hall was promised that didn’t come to fruition… I don’t believe it’s the definition. This is a city council meeting. We’re the ones that are gonna live next to it. We’re the ones that live in the path of the infrastructure.”

The city told KSHB 41 on Monday in a statement, they changed the format to prioritize the voices of city taxpayers, as county taxpayers have dominated the public comment periods over the past couple of months.

Mayor Nick Hampson also told Gamboa in an earlier interview he was hoping to have a productive “town hall” — instead, the first meeting with the public and the developer of the project was during a formal and regularly scheduled city council meeting.

The city also required residents to submit questions ahead of time, and the city would filter questions to the developer, while limiting public comment to three minutes.

“We have been and will continue to hear from the residents that are in the county and closest to this project,” Hampson told KSHB 41 in an email on Monday.

Alcove Development owned Property — A former school house in Osawatomie, Kansas, owned by a company operating out of Alcove Development’s address.

Residents shared a record to KSHB 41, submitted to the city for a formal investigation into 1009 Pacific Avenue in Osawatomie, which is owned by a company operating out of Alcove Development’s address.

The dilapidated property is the a former school house, that sits with broken windows, and other parts of the building breaking down.

The Miami County Republic reporting on Thursday, the city launched an investigation into the building.

Residents cite the buildings deteriorating condition and potential danger to the public, and lack of property maintenance.

Lee Brewer issued a comment regarding the incident at Thursday night’s meeting, stating he was escorted out after the Mayor closed public comment, and he was not on the list.

Brewer told KSHB 41, he has a time -stamped email of pre-submitted questions ahead of the meeting. KSHB 41 asked Brewer to review the email, and is waiting for an answer.

I am severely disappointed in our Mayor and the city council. They told us we were required to send in an email with our questions and our address to prove we were citizens of the town by Wednesday the 24th at noon. I have my email which is timestamped at 10:26 a.m. Wednesday the 24th. They shut me down and first told me I didn’t put the email in and then once I was kicked out of there I was told by people coming out that they were told I turned in my email too late. I’m not a math teacher but last time I looked at my clock 10:26 a.m. falls just over an hour and a half before noon. I mean correct me if I’m wrong. I thought because the mayor and I were having decent conversations on Facebook Messenger, whereas I would ask him questions and he would answer to the best of his ability. And I would thank him I thought we were pretty cordial. So to basically call me a liar in front of the entire town on video recording, take away my freedom of speech My first amendment right, and have me removed from a public building was completely wrong I am very disappointed in our city council and mayor. When I approached the podium all I was trying to do was point out that resolution number 1169 in Osawatomie Kansas refers to Alcove development LLC being the owner of the old Swenson School at 1009 Pacific. As I pointed out in these earlier messages to you Alcove has left this building dilapidated in ruins and a danger to our community. Our great city council and mayor seem to have other plans for me being able to speak though.

Lee Brew, via Facebook to KSHB 41 News

KSHB 41 reached out to Alcove Development late on Thursday night, and is waiting on a response.

—