WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — A crash on Friday night in Thomas County claimed the life of a 19-year-old woman and injured five others.
The Kansas Highway Patrol said the crash happened around 9:44 p.m., two miles east of Kansas Highway 25 on Thomas County Road 21.
The KHP said a Colorado man was driving a pickup truck and left the roadway at the intersection of a private drive before he crashed into a tree row.
There were six passengers in the vehicle. One of the passengers, Emma Brungardt, 19, of Blue Rapids, was killed at the scene of the crash.
The other five people inside the vehicle sustained minor injuries.
The Miss Rodeo Kansas Pageant website shows Brungardt was Miss Teen Rodeo Kansas in 2024. She was a student at Colby Community College on a rodeo scholarship and competed in barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying.
“Emma was a true gem and horsewoman who embodied what it meant to be a rodeo queen, always going above and beyond what was expected of her,” a Facebook post from Miss Rodeo Kansas Pageant said. “We will miss her contagious smile and one in a million personality. Please keep her family and friends in your prayers as they navigate through this unimaginable loss.”