PITTSBURG, Kan. — During icy conditions Thursday evening, one person sustained minor injuries when two vehicles collided after one of them tried to avoid another vehicle on Highway 69 six miles south of Pittsburg.
At approximately 6:40 p.m. Thursday, 19-year-old Hector Fontanez of Pittsburg was driving northbound on US Highway 69 in a 2008 Ford Escape, when a vehicle in front of him began to slow down to check on another vehicle, which had slid into the ditch on the east side of the highway, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol. When Fontanez was unable to stop, he swerved into the southbound lane and sideswiped a 2013 GMC Sierra, according to the KHP crash report.
Fontanez suffered no apparent injuries, and no other occupants were in the vehicle, but the driver of the Sierra, 31-year-old Jesus Zuniga-Perez of Galena, was taken to Freeman Hospital in Joplin for treatment of suspected minor injuries, according to the KHP. Zuniga-Perez's passengers, 31-year-old Rita Zuniga-Banda and two juveniles, sustained no apparent injuries.
