BEATRICE – Two people have been killed in a head-on crash in northeast Kansas’ Clay County. 

The Kansas Highway Patrol reports the Saturday afternoon collision happened seven miles west of Clay Center, on U.S. Highway 24.

Two passengers in a 2004 Toyota Sienna van were killed…72-year-old Robert McCollum and 79-year-old Alma Wright….both of Gardner, Kansas. Two other passengers had serious injuries, though the driver of the Toyota was not hurt. The passengers injured were taken to Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka.

The KHP says an eastbound 2001 Ford Ranger Pickup driven by 18-year-old Richard Jackson of Clay Center, crossed the center line of U.S. 24 into the westbound lane, where it collided head-on the eastbound Toyota van, driven by 47-year-old Johnathan Wright, of Shawnee, Kansas.  

Jackson was taken to Salina Region Health Center with serious injuries.

The vehicles ended up in opposite ditches along the highway, with the van coming to rest on its passenger side.

Neither of the two passengers killed were wearing safety restraints, according to the patrol.   The collision happened just before four p.m., Saturday.