JULY 5, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE #20-0705
CONTACT: SHERIFF TIM MORSE @ 785-364-2251
FATALITY UTV ACCIDENT NEAR NETAWAKA
On July 05, 2020 at approximately 2:05 a.m., the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office received a report from the Horton Police Department Dispatch Center of an accident involving a UTV approximately ½ mile west of S. Road on 318th Road in northern Jackson County. The caller reported one person was possibly deceased and others injured. Upon arrival, a deputy sheriff and a passenger administered CPR to an occupant who had been ejected and who was later pronounced deceased. Five of the other surviving occupants were transported to Stormont vail in Topeka and Sabetha Hospital with life-threatening and non-life-threatening injuries.
The initial investigation determined that the driver had been operating a 2020 Honda UTV traveling westbound on 318th Rd ( a low maintenance road) from S. Road running along the side of another UTV. The 2020 Honda UTV left the roadway and lost control and overturned, ejecting a 13 y/o front seat passenger. The 13 y/o passenger, Iziah Ansley Martinez, of Fargo, North Dakota was pronounced dead at the scene. The Sheriff’s Office is investigating whether alcohol was a contributing factor to the accident. Netawaka, Whiting, and Holton Fire Departments and Jackson County EMS, PBPN EMS, and Horton EMS responded to the scene. The incident remains under investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.