2 killed when Corvette crashes into building, catches fire late Sunday in Kansas City
Update: Police identified the two victims as 33-year-old Delvon Landrum and 41-year-old Nickie Lewis.
Two people were killed when the driver of a Corvette slammed into a building late Sunday, Kansas City police said.
Police were initially called to a one-vehicle collision in the area of Linwood Boulevard and Holmes Street, police said. While attending to that crash, officers noticed a separate vehicle, a Corvette, headed east “at a very high rate of speed,” according to a crash report.
Officers watched as the gray Corvette veered into the lanes of oncoming traffic to pass other vehicles that were stopped at the intersection, according to the report. The driver of the Corvette then turned left, toward East 31st Street.
The report said that officers attending to the other crash didn’t try to stop or chase the Corvette, but followed the driver. When they reached 31st Steet, they saw flames.
The Corvette crashed into a building at the southeast corner of East 31st Street and Troost Avenue just after 11 p.m.
Officers on the scene tried and failed to put out the flames, according to the crash report. The fire department arrived soon after and extinguished the blaze. The driver and passenger were both found inside the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
The deaths mark the 34th and 35th traffic fatalities this year in Kansas City, according to the police department.
The building is home to Thelma’s Kitchen, which moved out of the location about a month ago to begin extensive renovations. The building was empty at the time of the crash.
Jodi Mathews, Director of Marketing and Development for Reconciliation Services, said she did not believe the wreck would impact the timeline for the renovations and that Thelma’s Kitchen hopes to reopen in that location late next summer.
It took about five hours for police to re-open the intersection early Monday.
As the driver of the Corvette sped down 31st Street, they at one point drove to the right of a construction zone and onto a sidewalk, police said. In the process, the car sheared off a large piece of a metal traffic signal pole on the southeast side of the intersection.
The car also went through a chain link fence and ran into orange traffic barriers. Once the car caught fire, the blaze also caused “extensive damage” to the building on the southeast corner of the intersection, police said.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 6:48 AM.
