By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
The community can be thankful today a Hays man listened to what he described as the “inner voice” in his head telling him to turn his car around and tell the two young girls he had seen standing in rapidly moving water to get out.
Mike Leiker is the man who called 911 early Monday afternoon after two girls were swept into a drainage system at 19th Street and Lincoln Drive — a call that launched a successful rescue mission by first-responders throughout Hays.
Leiker is Ellis County director of information technology and, coincidentally, a member of the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council.
“I was returning from my lunch break and decided to look at the water levels in the Van Doran Pond and Lincoln Draw,” he said. “As I approached 19th Street on Lincoln Drive, I noticed two girls standing in the draw, knee-deep in the swiftly moving water about 15 feet from the opening of the Lincoln Draw drainage tunnel.”
As he passed the girls, he said he gave them “a stern look as I tend to do when I see kids being mischievous.”
Leiker kept driving, but within seconds thought, “I have to go back and tell those girls to get out.”
“In the 30 seconds it took to round the corner, I came upon the scene and my heart sank,” he said. “I noticed that they were not standing where I saw them at first. I saw only one of the girls standing at the mouth of the tunnel looking in and yelling (her friend’s name).”
Leiker said before he could even get the car stopped and get out of the car, the second girl was in the tunnel.
Leiker was immediately on his cellphone calling 911.
“I could hear her screams for about 10 seconds gradually getting more faint,” he said. “When I could no longer hear her screams, I knew she was swept down the tunnel.”
Leiker said emergency responders were on the scene within two minutes, beginning an “impressive coordinated effort and systematic search” for the two girls.
Leiker said he is not speaking publicly about the incident because he wants recognition, but to stress the importance of calling 911, as he said he had to fight the urge to go in after the girls himself.
“I realized I would have been just another person down the tube,” he said.
“I think it is important for all people to respond and react to these things,” Leiker said. “As a parent, you recognize when kids are in danger, so the takeaway I have from this is to stop, to call 911.”
Leiker said he was relieved to find the girls had both been found safe, and said he has a message for them — “I am glad you are OK.”