Kansas
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.”
KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers Johnson County. She’s reported on the Chiefs’ decision to move its team facility to Olathe since the team made the announcement in December. That coverage has included amplifying the voices of residents who have different perspectives on the project, which has ranged from excitement to scrutiny. Share your story idea with Elyse.
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Kansas City Chiefs President Mark Donovan said Friday the team is drawing inspiration from recent team headquarters projects with the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys as they develop plans for their own new headquarters in Olathe.
In December, the club reached an agreement with Kansas officials to move across the state line. The agreement called for a $3 billion, domed stadium in western Kansas City, Kansas, and a new team headquarters and practice facility near Kansas Highway 10 and Ridgeview Road in Olathe.
Donovan’s remarks on Friday came during the Olathe Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Meeting at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center.
Elyse Schoenig/KSHB
The chamber’s theme for 2026, “Olathe Rising,” appears well-timed as the Chiefs work to build out their team headquarters vision.
Donovan said the team and its partners have been busy behind the scenes and hope to have updates on the project in the near future.
He said the club will look to work with the Olathe School District and the Olathe City Council in their plans.
The club is exploring a unique component to the facility by incorporating flag football into the project.
Flag football has been a priority of the club and the National Football League. The sport will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
In April, the Kansas State High School Athletics Association is set to vote on whether to sanction girls’ flag football as a high school varsity sport.
Funding for the club’s Olathe project will come in part from the sale of bonds paid for by certain sales tax revenues.
In February, the Olathe City Council approved participation in a STAR bonds district to build the team’s new headquarters and training facility at College Boulevard and Ridgeview Road.
Elsewhere on Friday, Kansas legislators introduced the Kansas Sports Authority Act. The act would create a nine-member board to oversee all aspects of sports facility construction.
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WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A former Kansas wrestling coach was charged with creating child sexual abuse materials by secretly recording minors showering during an athletic competition.
According to court documents, 37-year-old Ryan Brungardt of Salina is charged with two counts of production of child pornography and one count of attempted production of child pornography.
Brungardt is a former employee at Lakewood Middle School and former wrestling coach for Salina Central High School.
Brungardt is accused of using a cellphone to record three minors while they showered in a locker room during the Tournament of Champions, a wrestling tournament was held at Newton High in January 2024.
Brungardt made his initial court appearance for the criminal complaint on Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Brooks G. Severson.
A detention hearing is scheduled for Monday
Investigators are in the process of reviewing additional seized cellphone videos in this case that are suspected to have been recorded at wrestling meets in Newton, Hays, Garden City and Salina during the 2023-2024 wrestling season.
Anyone who believes they witnessed crimes or any suspicious activity at these events is asked to contact the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at (785) 600-8790 or report at www.kbi.ks.gov/sar.
Copyright 2026 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email news@kwch.com
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Below is a look at the results from Wednesday night’s high school basketball sub-state semifinals in Northeast Kansas.
Editor’s Note: This story will be updated with what schools are hosting when that information becomes readily available.
WIBW Scoreboard
BOYS
6A Boys West Sub-State: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results
- Topeka High 57, Washburn Rural 50 (will play Maize Saturday)
- Junction City 70, Dodge City 56 (will play Derby Saturday)
- Manhattan 58, Wichita-Northwest 56 (will play Wichita-East Saturday)
4A Boys East Sub-State: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results
- Rock Creek 62, Louisberg 57 (will play Bishop Miege Saturday)
- Atchison 74, Wamego 43
- Hayden 72, Independence 56 (will play Atchison Saturday)
- Eudora 76, Santa Fe Trail 68
GIRLS
5A West Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results
- Hays 80, Topeka West 18
- Eisenhower 55, Seaman 41
- Kapaun Mt. Carmel 71, Emporia 41
5A East Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results
- Shawnee Heights 89, Sumner 15 (will play Pittsburg Saturday)
- Basehor-Linwood 74, Highland Park 28 (will play Piper Saturday)
3A Pomona-West Franklin Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results
- Osage City 75, Columbus 31 (will play Frontenac Saturday)
3A Sabetha Girls: Wednesday’s sub-state semifinal results
- Silver Lake 48, Nemaha Central 26 (will play Riley County Saturday)
- Riley County 51, Jeff West 40 (will play Silver Lake)
Copyright 2026 WIBW. All rights reserved.
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