Kansas heroes:Transportation safety winners honored

The Kansas Department of Transportation honored five Kansans with Transportation Safety Recognition Awards for their efforts to improve traffic safety. The awards were presented today at the 25th Annual Transportation Safety Conference that took place April 2-3 in Wichita.

Recipients are honored in two categories - People Saving People Award and the Hero Award. 

The People Saving People Award recognizes an individual or organization that has made outstanding contributions to the improvement of transportation safety behavior in Kansas. The 2019 recipients are: 

Rita Lesser, Perry – Lesser teaches at Perry-Lecompton High School and also serves as the sponsor for SAFE (Seatbelts Are For Everyone). As the SAFE sponsor, she teaches students about seat belt usage and distracted and impaired driving by creatively utilizing sidewalk messages, PSAs on YouTube, pledge cards, posters, window painting, health fair booths, drunk goggles and the Convincer (a crash simulator).

Amber Rollins, Olathe – Rollins is the Director of KidsAndCars.org, an organization that focuses attention on children left unattended in or around vehicles. She was instrumental in the passing of a Good Samaritan law (HB 2516) in Kansas to protect citizens from liability if they break into a vehicle to rescue a trapped child, vulnerable adult or animal.

Overland Park Police Department – The Overland Park Police Department utilized the Data-Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) to significantly reduce the number of crashes at Oak Park Mall and two major intersections adjacent to the mall. Officers focused on hazardous traffic violations and made every effort to monitor seat belt violations, distracted driving, teen drivers and motorists driving while impaired. As a result, overall crashes were reduced by 17 percent - from 214 crashes in 2017 to 177 in 2018.

The Hero Award recognizes the individual who risked his or her own life for someone else when they happened upon a crash or while trying to prevent the likelihood of a crash in a one-time traffic safety-related incident. The 2019 recipients are:

Deputy Robert K. Kunze, III, Sedgwick County – Kunze demonstrated extreme bravery and courage during a traffic stop in which he was mortally wounded but still managed to pursue and capture his assailant. He very likely saved the lives of two citizens onsite at the traffic stop and all the responding law enforcement officers who followed.

Sergeant Mitchell Talley, Miami County – Talley responded to a medical call in which a man was bleeding from a self-inflicted four-inch laceration on the left side of his neck. Talley believed the victim had severed an artery, and he continuously applied pressure to the area until EMS arrived and took over. The man survived because of Talley’s meritorious actions.

#IAMKDOT: Larry Kjellberg

This month’s #IAMKDOT is Larry Kjellberg, a Highway Maintenance Supervisor for the Ness City Subarea. 

Kjellberg began his career at KDOT as a temporary employee during the summer of 1980.  He returned to KDOT in as an Equipment Operator I in 1981.  He was promoted to Equipment Operator II in September 1985, Equipment Operator Senior in 2003, Equipment Operator Specialist in 2010 and was promoted to Highway Maintenance Supervisor for the Ness City Subarea last year. 

With more than 35 years of experience, Kjellberg has many memorable moments with KDOT, but says his favorite part of the job is the winter snow plow season because that’s when he really gets to help people – and help he has. 

He’s helped stranded motorists change tires and located and returned a lost cell phone.  He’s helped in several life-saving efforts to transport patients to hospitals during blizzards. Kjellberg earned a KDOT Orange Hero award for his efforts.

When a patient from the Tribune/Leoti area needed to be transferred to Hays, Kjellberg met the ambulance at the county line and plowed the way for them to the Rush County line where the next snow plow driver waited to escort the ambulance on to Ellis County.  Not too long after, Kjellberg got the call again.  The Ness City hospital needed help transferring a patient to Hays during a snow storm.  Kjellberg met the ambulance again and led the way to the Rush County Line where the LaCrosse team took over.

Kjellberg and his wife Wendi have four kids, Amber (Dighton), Becca (Kinsley) Chelsey (Dighton) and Lucas (Ness City) and five grandkids.  When not at work, Kjellberg enjoys spending time with his children and grandkids, but especially enjoys fishing with his grandkids, and hunting and trapping with his son, Lucas.  Those close to him would say that he is a trustworthy, honest and sincere role model.