TRUXTON, Ariz. (AP) — The Latest on a railroad wreck in northwestern Arizona.

Authorities have released the name of a man killed and another man injured in the crash of two trains in northwestern Arizona.

Mohave County Sheriff’s officials say a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train collided Tuesday afternoon with a Herzog Railroad Services train pushing maintenance equipment in a remote canyon near Truxton 103 miles (166 kilometers) west of Flagstaff.

Sheriff’s officials say 63-year-old Walter Erickson of Lenexa, Kansas, was pronounced dead at the scene.

They say another Herzog employee — 26-year-old Matthew Thompson of Salem, Missouri — was airlifted to a Nevada hospital with serious injuries and is listed in stable condition.

Authorities say all occupants of the BNSF train were accounted for and no other injuries were reported.

BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent says the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, which left the BNSF freight train with significant front-end damage and derailed several cars on the Herzog train.

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A fatal collision between two BNSF Railway trains on the freight railroad’s tracks in northwestern Arizona forced Amtrak to use charter buses to carry train passengers between Flagstaff and Los Angeles.

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said one person was killed and another injured in the wreck, which occurred Tuesday near Truxton, Arizona, which is 103 miles (166 kilometers) west of Flagstaff.

No identities were released, and BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent declined to say whether the people killed or injured in the wreck in rural Mohave County were BNSF employees.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said Wednesday the busing of passengers on the passenger railroad’s Southwest Chief route between Chicago and Los Angeles will continue until BNSF reopens its tracks at the wreck site.

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9:20 a.m.

BNSF Railway says its southern mainline between Southern California and Chicago remained shut down Wednesday in northwestern Arizona because of a two-train collision in which one person was killed and another injured.

No identities were released and BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent declined to say whether the people killed or injured in the wreck near Tuesday in rural Mohave County were employees.

She also declined to provide any information about the circumstances of the wreck but said one locomotive was left derailed but upright and that two cars also were derailed.

Kent said the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident. An NTSB spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for information.

The wreck occurred near Truxton, which is 103 miles (166 kilometers) west of Flagstaff.

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7:10 a.m.

Authorities say one person was killed and a second injured when two freight trains collided on BNSF Railway tracks in northwestern Arizona.

A BNSF spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for information but the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office says the collision occurred Tuesday near the small community of Truxton and that deputies reported that one train derailed and that the other had “significant damage.”

The Sheriff’s Office said the National Transportation Safety Board was notified of the wreck and is “involved in the investigations.”

An NTSB spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for information, and sheriff’s spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said no information is available about the people who were killed or injured and circumstances of the wreck.

Truxton is 103 miles (166 kilometers) west of Flagstaff.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas health officials say the state’s worst measles outbreak in almost 30 years is officially over.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Wednesday a measles outbreak that began at a Johnson County daycare in March has ended. It eventually spread to Miami and Linn counties. In total, 22 people in the three counties were infected.

It was the most measles cases in one year in Kansas since 1990.

A measles outbreak is considered over when no new cases have been identified and two separate 21-day incubation periods pass.

FOREST CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Kansas teen accused of raping a fellow student in a Waldorf University dorm in northern Iowa has taken a plea deal.

Court records say 18-year-old Sean Perkins, of Olathe, Kansas, signed the deal filed Tuesday in Winnebago County District Court.

The agreement includes a one-year deferred prosecution on the charge of serious misdemeanor assault, which had been lowered from felony sexual abuse. The agreement says that if Perkins were to violate the agreement, the guilty plea would be used against him. But the charge would be dropped if he were to meet the agreement’s terms.

County Attorney Kelsey Beenken says there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute Perkins for rape. Beenken says the woman involved believes the agreement, which includes a no-contact order, will help her start the healing process.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – Two men from Kansas City, Kan., were indicted today on charges of possession with intent to distribute more than two pounds of heroin, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Hugo Miguel Lopez-Erazo, 30, Kansas City, Kan., and Cesar Donai Bautista, 38, Kansas City, Kan., are charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin. In addition, Lopez-Erazo is charged with two counts of distributing methamphetamine and one count of distributing heroin. The crimes are alleged to have occurred in July and August 2017, and January and May 2018 in Wyandotte County, Kan.

According to court documents, in May 2018 investigators working undercover arranged to buy two pounds of heroin from the defendants. Investigators met the defendants in a parking lot on South 18th Street in Kansas City, Kan., where they seized the heroin and arrested Lopez-Erazo and Bautista.

Upon conviction, the alleged crimes carry the following penalties:
Possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute heroin: Not less than 10 years and a fine up to $10 million on each count.
Distribution of heroin: Up to 20 years and a fine up to $1 million.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James Ward is prosecuting.

MCPHERSON COUNTY — Three people died in an accident just after 8a.m. Wednesday in McPherson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported law enforcement was in pursuit of a 2017 Nissan Versa driven by Casas, Miguel A. Casas, 29, Elmonte, CA., eastbound on  U.S. 56 just east of the Rice County line.

The vehicle crossed the center line and struck 1998 Ford Thunderbird driven by Gerald F. Mindrup, 73, Windom, almost head on.

Mindrup and a passenger in the Nissan Sara M. Morales, 28, Rosemead, California, were pronounced dead at the scene. Casas was transported to a hospital in Wichita where he died.

All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

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MCPHERSON COUNTY — Two people died in an accident just after 8a.m. Wednesday in McPherson County.

Just after 7:30 a.m., deputies learned of an erratic driver eastbound on U.S. 56 four miles west of Lyons, according to Rice County Sheriff Bryant Evans. The driver, traveling at dangerous speeds nearly ran a westbound Rice County Deputy off the road, according to Evans. The deputy turned and attempted to stop the vehicle. Due to the unsafe speeds, the deputy lost sight of the vehicle, according to Evans.

The vehicle continued eastbound and was observed by law enforcement as it continued through Lyons and Little River, according to Evans.

The vehicle was involved in a fatal head-on crash as it traveled into McPherson County, according to Evans.

US-56 is now back open in western McPherson county following a two vehicle crash that killed three occupants.

— Trooper Ben (@TrooperBenKHP) June 6, 2018

The Kansas Highway Patrol Critical Highway Accident Response Team (CHART) is investigating the crash. U.S. 56 between 4th Avenue and Plum was temporarily closed to facilitate the investigation.

Names of the victims have not been released.

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MCPHERSON COUNTY —U.S. 56 Highway is closed between 4th Avenue and Plum Avenue on the west side of McPherson county, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.

The Critical Highway Accident Response Team (CHART) has arrived to investigate the Wednesday morning two vehicle fatal crash.

Rice County Law Enforcement had attempted to stop one of the vehicles involved in Rice County prior to fatal crash in McPherson County.

Check the Post for additional details as they become available.

PRATT COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating an accidental shooting.

The shooting on Wednesday morning injured a 5-year-old girl in the southeast part of Pratt County, according to a media release from Sheriff Jimmy White.

The girl suffered a single gunshot wound from a shotgun to the left arm. She was shot by a sibling.

Pratt County EMS, and Pratt County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the incident. No names are being released at this time.

A life Team helicopter transferred the girl to a Wichita hospital.

The sheriff’s department released no additional details.

BY JIM MCLEAN

A group of Kansans hoping to establish a new centrist political party in time to field candidates for the upcoming general election failed to get enough signatures to make that happen.

Even so, they say, they got enough support to convince them that they could be on the 2020 ballot.

A lifelong moderate Republican, Morgan left the party after losing a 2014 primary challenge to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Kobach is a conservative who, along with former Gov. Sam Brownback, pushed the party to right in recent years.

Morgan is attempting to form the Party of the Center. He said that party is more about process and good government than ideology.

Political scientists are skeptical, noting that the handful of third parties have had any success formed around either a powerful cause or a charismatic leader.

Still, after spending months circulating petitions and talking politics with Kansans, Morgan said he’s more convinced than ever that it’s possible.

“That unserved, untapped market of people who are lost without a party is just massive,” he said.

Morgan blamed poor planning for the failure to gather the requisite signatures before a June 1 deadline. He specifically noted his group’s decision to start in winter, when the type of large outdoor gatherings that lend themselves to petition drives are scarce.

Organizers hope to get the rest of the signatures needed to formally register the party by later this summer, Morgan said, and then focus on recruiting candidates for 2020.

“We can take a good year getting together (a slate) of Senate and House candidates,” he said.

Jim McLean is managing director of the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.