A Kansas State University junior is recovering after falling 70 feet from a highway overpass while dodging a truck during a multi-vehicle crash.
Kyra Kinnison, 21, an animal science major at the Manhattan, Kansas, school, was driving near Ogden on Friday night when a large insulation pallet tumbled from a truck onto Kansas Highway 18. The incident set off a chain-reaction collision that left Kinnison scrambling for safety and ultimately plummeting off the bridge.
Kinnison and her boyfriend, Dalten Grabast, had been traveling in separate cars toward Salina when the pallet fell. Grabast managed to swerve around the obstacle and stop, according to fellow K-State student Sara Celeen, who spoke to WIBW and launched a GoFundMe campaign for her friend.
“Kyra pulled over to the side of the road, and then a vehicle crashed into his vehicle,” Celeen told the station.
The crash unfolded directly in front of the couple, and with a truck bearing down on her, Kinnison jumped backward to escape. She went over the edge of the overpass, falling roughly 70 feet before striking a tree below.
The fall left Kinnison with fractures to her back, pelvis, and tailbone. She underwent surgery to realign her hips, and Celeen shared a photo showing the two friends smiling together despite the ordeal.
Celeen, a dairy science senior at K-State, updated the fundraiser Tuesday with encouraging news about her friend’s condition. She told WIBW that Kinnison “is doing very well for someone who fell 70 feet.”
“I’m just glad she’s not paralyzed for life,” Celeen said.
“There was really a guardian angel out there, looking out for her.”
The crash near Ogden on Highway 18 began when the truck lost its insulation pallet, forcing Grabast to take evasive action. After he stopped, Kinnison pulled her own vehicle to the roadside, only to see another vehicle slam into his. The subsequent chaos put her directly in the path of oncoming traffic, leading to her desperate backward leap off the overpass.
Celeen’s GoFundMe has drawn support from the K-State community as Kinnison begins what is expected to be a lengthy recovery from her multiple fractures and hip surgery.
Kinnison’s survival joins a recent string of remarkable falls involving college students in the region. Kristin Sargent, a 21-year-old University of Georgia senior, survived an eight-story plunge from an Athens apartment building after dancing on a couch following the Georgia Bulldogs’ victory over Oklahoma on Saturday.