Staff writer
Two Wichita men were injured early Sunday in a spectacular accident off US-77, south of 140th Rd.
Wichita resident Caleb Harris, 20, was southbound on US-77 when the car he was driving veered over the center line and went off the east side of the highway.
The car hurtled 55 feet through a ditch and field before it became airborne and flew into the trunk of a tree more than 10 feet up and bounced off, leaving debris hanging from the tree.
The car ricocheted off the tree and overturned at least once before it came to rest on its roof in a creek bed 100 feet from the road.
Although both occupants of the car were injured, neither called dispatchers.
According to undersheriff Larry Starkey, the sheriff’s office became aware of the accident when Wichita police notified them that the two men from the car had been driven to a Wichita hospital. Deputies went to search for the car and found a 2006 Ford Escape registered to Hailee Trichel of Corning, Iowa, at 5:09 a.m.
Starkey said the pair had called someone else to pick them up and take them to a hospital.
Starkey said that Caleb Harris, 20, Wichita, was driving and that Elrecus Nolan, 16, Wichita, was a passenger.
Harris had multiple broken bones, and Nolan had minor injuries, Starkey said.
It is unknown who drove the pair to Wichita.