Driver who died after van plunged into Kansas City’s Brush creek identified by police
Police identified the driver who died after his minivan plunged into Kansas City’s Brush Creek Thursday afternoon.
Ernest Kearney, 76, died at a hospital after Kansas City firefighters pulled him out of his submerged vehicle near the intersection of The Paseo and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard around 2:20 that afternoon, said fire department spokesman Jason Spreitzer.
Officials don’t know how long the vehicle was under water before first responders arrived, but said Kearney was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital within 25 minutes of the call, Spreitzer said.
Divers took five to 10-minute shifts searching the area for anyone else who may have been inside the vehicle at the time of the crash because of frigid temperatures amid Thursday’s winter storm. No one else was in the minivan at the time of the crash, police confirmed.
Kearney appeared to have lost control of the minivan while traveling south on The Paseo, according to Officer Donna Drake with the Kansas City Police Department. The vehicle slid down an embankment, continued over a concrete retaining wall and landed upside down in the creek, she said.
