PHOTOS: Wrong way driver killed in Sunday morning crash, that injured four others, has been identified

Posted: October 27, 2013 - 2:51am
Updated: October 29, 2013 - 1:24pm

Update: 

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Police have identified the driver that was killed in the accident as Julio Cesar Romero-Zepeda, 22, of Olathe, Kansas.

Operation 100 News has spoke to one of the people who called 9-1-1 to report the accident, Darla Williams of Gardner, Kansas. Williams says that she was on her way home from babysitting her grandson in Olathe when she came upon the crash.


Williams said, "It was so dark, I could only hear the screams and I told 911 to send at least three ambulances, maybe more."


Olathe Police have not released any other information regarding the accident's cause or any other circumstances surrounding the crash.

There were no updates available on the other victims of the crash early Tuesday afternoon.

Original report:

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Olathe Police are investigating if a wrong way vehicle may have caused a serious accident this morning on Interstate 35.

The crash was reported shortly before 2:30 Sunday morning in the southbound lanes of Interstate 35 near Sheridan Street, north of Old U.S. 56 highway.

Police arrived on the scene to report two vehicles with heavy damage and several people trapped inside of a van.



Olathe fire crews reported one of the involved vehicles had rolled over following the crash and had sustained very heavy damage. Firefighters extricated at least three people from vehicles.

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Johnson County Med-Act transported three people with critical injuries and at least two others are said to have serious injuries. A total of five ambulances were involved on the call.

The injured people were transported to three different area hospitals.

At 3:52 a.m., Operation 100 News was able to confirm that one of the critically injured, a 22-year-old male, had passed away at an area hospital.

The southbound lanes of Interstate 35 at Santa Fe (135th Street) were closed until around 6 a.m. Sunday for the accident scene to be investigated and cleaned up.

During the clean up, a mini-van crashed into a barricade that was blocking the southbound lanes. The Kansas Highway Patrol says the driver was not injured in this secondary accident.

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