A 68-year-old Manhattan woman was seriously injured Friday morning after a vehicle struck her while she was using a crosswalk within an on-ramp near Anderson Avenue and Seth Child Road. The driver, 42-year-old Spencer Lawson of Manhattan, was behind the wheel of a 2010 Honda Element at the time of the collision. She was taken to a hospital in Kansas City for treatment.
According to the JC Post, the injured pedestrian was identified as Cheryl Caldwall, 68, of Manhattan. The outlet reported that she was transported to KU Medical Center in Kansas City for treatment of serious injuries after the Honda Element, driven by Lawson, struck her in the crosswalk at the on-ramp intersection.
According to the JC Post, the injured pedestrian was identified as Cheryl Caldwall, 68, of Manhattan. The outlet reported that she was transported to KU Medical Center in Kansas City for treatment of serious injuries after the Honda Element, driven by Lawson, struck her in the crosswalk at the on-ramp intersection. According to 1350kman.com, officers responded to the injury accident at approximately 7:43 a.m. on Oct. 2 at Anderson Avenue and Seth Child Road. That report also names the pedestrian as Cheryl Caldwall, 68, of Manhattan, while she was using the crosswalk within the on-ramp. Separately, WIBW identified the same woman as Cheryl Caldwell, 68, of Manhattan, in its account of the collision between the Honda Element and the pedestrian in the on-ramp crosswalk. The two outlets differ on the spelling of her surname, and that discrepancy has not been resolved.
Crash Remains Under Investigation
The Riley County Police Department released the accident activity report but offered no additional details beyond the basic facts of the collision, according to JC Post. The crash remains under investigation, according to the 1350kman.com account, and no further information on potential findings or outcomes has been made public.
This is not the first serious pedestrian crash reported on Manhattan's Anderson Avenue on-ramp corridor this year. In July, a runner was seriously injured when a 2016 Ford Flex struck him on the southbound shoulder of the entrance ramp from Anderson Avenue to North Seth Child Road, according to WIBW. That runner, identified as Marco V. Retamoza, 23, of Garden City, was taken to an area hospital with serious injuries, and the roadway reopened to traffic by around 10:49 a.m. that same morning.
Other Recent Pedestrian Crashes in Manhattan
A separate crash struck a 19-year-old Manhattan woman on Sept. 8 at the intersection of Denison Avenue and Jardine Drive, according to KSNT. That crash, which occurred shortly after 5:20 p.m., left the pedestrian with serious injuries, and medical personnel transported her to a local hospital for treatment. The driver involved in that incident was a 27-year-old from Junction City operating a 2027 BMW X6.
Statewide, Kansas traffic fatalities climbed 11% from 2013 to 2023, even as deaths declined for three straight years and fell below 400 for the first time since 2015, per the Kansas Reflector. No official cause, fault determination, or citation connected to Friday's crash has been verified, and investigators have not released further details on the woman's condition beyond the initial report of serious injuries.
