Three injured in Aug. 27 accident in Marion County

Three people were injured in a two-car crash Monday morning when one of the drivers overcorrected crossing the center line and struck an oncoming vehicle three miles south of Herington on U.S. Highway 56.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, Valerie Pesina, 20, of Balch Springs, Texas, was northbound on U.S. Highway 56, in Marion County when the 2000 Infinity she was driving went off the east-side shoulder.

Pesina struck an approaching 2011 Ford Edge traveling southbound and driven by Howard Hiltz, 70, of Albany, Ore.

In addition to Pesina, two other people were taken by ambulance to Herington Munici?pal Hospital?s emergency room, where they were treated or moved to a second facility.

Andrew Ramos, 21, of Junction City, was a passenger in the Infinity and Sheryl Hiltz, 71, was a passenger in the Ford.

The accident happened at about 9:30 a.m., the KHP report stated, and all four people were wearing seat belts.

The incident is the second time emergency personnel were called to the Marion/Dickinson county line in less than three weeks and before Marion County commissioners were able to discuss their emergency dispatch procedures.

Commissioners were reviewing the policy following concerns by Teresa Kasten, mother of Seth Biehler, 17, who was in the backseat of the truck involved in the Aug. 10 head-on collision south of Herington on U.S. Highway 56 and 77 where a mother and child were fatally injured.

In her letter to the Hillsboro Free Press, Kasten said she was ?mortified? to learn the reason for a delay in emergency personnel arriving at that scene was because of a policy stating that anything in Marion County should be responded by its medical personnel, regardless of how close another agency might be.

Kasten said she encouraged the commissioners to make a difference, if not for them, then for the friends or family who might someday be affected by the policy the way it stands.

At Monday?s meeting, the commissioners decided to meet Thursday with the Dickinson Commission and, in September, with Herington city officials to discuss handling future 911 calls.

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