The Kansas Highway Patrol reports a fatal crash occurred Wednesday in Ellsworth County. There were also two injury crashes Tuesday in Ellsworth County, both due to slick road conditions.

Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, a Freightliner semi-tractor driven by Curtis D. Birt, 63, of Shawnee, was traveling westbound on Interstate 70 when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle left the roadway into the north embankment, continuing westbound until turning on the passenger side, coming to rest 200 feet north of the roadway. Birt, who was not wearing a seat belt, died in the crash.

At 3:43 p.m. Tuesday, Patricia Yvonne Schmid, 60, of Hays, was westbound on K-156 in a 2008 Dodge Dakota when she lost control of the vehicle on the slick roadway, 10 miles west of K-14. The vehicle went off of the right-hand side of the roadway, spinning approximately 180 degrees before striking a concrete culvert, causing the vehicle to flip completely over and come to rest on its wheels facing northeast in the ditch.

Schmid was transported to Clara Barton Hospital in Hoisington with suspected serious injuries. Her passenger, Sarah Lorraine Kyner, 38, of Hoisington, suffered a possible injury. Although she reported some pain, Kyner was not transported. Both women were wearing seat belts.

Then at 5:32 p.m. Tuesday, a motorist lost control of a truck on the slick roadway, a tenth of a mile east of 21st Road on Interstate 70. The truck, driven by Aspen Lee Watson, 23, of Casper, Wyoming, struck an exit sign. Watson and another passenger in the truck had no apparent injury, while passenger Kyle Raymond Caldwell, 31, of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, was taken to Salina Regional Health Center with suspected serious injuries. All three were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.