Staff writer
Several Marion County emergency responders rushed to the scene of a farm semi-truck rollover Wednesday off Nighthawk Rd. south of 190th Rd. The driver, Linferd Funk of Hillsboro, had to be life watched to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.
Funk was the only one in the semi as it rolled once into the east ditch of the road spilling most of its load of soybeans into the ditch.
Teresa Easter of Salina and Bruce House of Marquette came upon the accident just after it occurred while on their way home from work in Peabody.
“Thank God we had left work early,” Easter said. “We came down the road just after it happened.”
When Easter and House arrived on scene Funk was up and walking around.
“I didn’t think he was as hurt as he was, but it must have been the adrenaline,” she said. “When I saw the truck in the ditch I never imagined someone just walking out of the truck.”
Easter put her coat around Funk to protect him from the cold and called 911.
“Not too long after, a neighbor drove up and I told her she should call 911 and tell them exactly where we were, because I had no idea, I’m not from around here, neither of us were so we were just guessing where we were,” House said.
They stayed with Funk until emergency crews arrived and contacted Funk’s wife, Dolores, to tell her what was happening.
“She called me an angel,” Easter said.
Funk was transported by helicopter to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita where he was treated and released that afternoon.
This is not the first time Easter and House were the first to arrive to a rollover, she said.
“We witnessed one other awhile ago, a car that rolled across the highway,” Easter said.
Kevin Steele was driving down Nighthawk Rd. on his way back to work when he was stopped because of the accident. The accident was too familiar to him as well.
“I’ve been in one of those before, where I’ve rolled a semi,” he said. “But luckily I walked away. I’ve never seen the inside of an ambulance.”
Equally as familiar for him was the spot in which the accident took place. On July 30, Steele’s car was swept off the road at the same spot by flooding.
“There must just be bad luck in that spot,” he said. “I was a little luckier than him though, but hopefully everything will turn out OK.”
Hillsboro fire, ambulance, and sheriff’s officers responded.
The semi was pulled out of the ditch around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and another truck was brought in to haul away the spilt soybeans.