The mourning continues for the woman who lost her son and grandson in a fatal wrong-way crash on K-96

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A woman continues to grieve and then demands answers Her son and grandson died in a crash on K-96 in east Wichita last month. FactFinder has the crash report from the Sept. 13 crash, but the new details the report contains are not the ones grieving mother and grandmother Laveta Henrickson wants to hear.

The crash changed Henrickson’s life forever. The newly released Kansas Highway Patrol report provides new information, but the family of father and son Randall Henrickson, identified as victims of the crash, and his 11-year-old son Eli Henrickson still have many unanswered questions.

As the family searches for answers, Laveta reflects on memories of her son Randall and grandson Eli.

“Little things like, ‘Little Eli would sometimes text me in the morning saying, ‘Have a nice day, Grandma,'” she said.

Dashcam footage from another vehicle captured everything on Sept. 13 and showed a driver heading east in the westbound lanes of K-96 and striking Randall and Eli’s vehicle head-on. The ghost ride also died.

“Losing a child, I can’t describe the pain, but losing my grandchild too?” Laveta said.

In KHP’s 15-page accident report, troopers said the wrong-way driver braked just before hitting Randall and Eli. We also learned that the data records in the vehicles were too corrupted to download. The autopsy for toxicology examination is still pending.

“I want to know why she killed my son and grandson. I just don’t understand it,” Laveta said.

Laveta said she knows the answer to that question will be difficult to hear, but it is an answer that she knows will help her process the losses.

“You never see them again, they’re gone forever and it’s devastating, devastating,” she said.

A big question that the KHP report on the crash doesn’t answer is “Why?” The report says nothing about what the driver of the ghost car did before the accident or whether there was any evidence of impairment. That could come later through the autopsy report, a report that could take weeks to complete.

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