Wallace Martin,Randall Franklin Obituary, Death; – The Phelps County Attorney released the names of the three men killed in a three-vehicle crash west of Funk.

The victims were identified as Wallace Martin, 67, of Holdrege, Randall Franklin, 36, of Funk, and Justin Mason, 34, of Arapahoe. Final autopsy results for these three victims have not been released. Emergency crews responded to a 911 dispatch just after 9:30 p.m. Friday at the intersection of Highway 6 and T Road.

Phelps County Attorney Corey O’Brien said in a release that once emergency responders were on scene, they located a Chevy Silverado and a Ford F-250 ablaze with substantial crash-related damage. A third vehicle, a Chevy Suburban, was located with substantial drivers’ side and front-end damage.

The sole occupant of the Ford pickup, a 35-year-old Axtell man, was pulled from the truck and taken to the hospital. As of Wednesday, he remains in serious but stable condition at CHI Health Good Samaritan in Kearney.

The driver of the Chevy Suburban, a 35-year-old Minden woman, had to be life-flighted from the scene to Kearney. She is in a Kansas City area hospital, where she remains in serious condition. The second passenger in the SUV was a minor child who got checked out but ultimately was released with no discernible injuries.
After getting the vehicle fires extinguished, firefighters located the three male victims in the Chevy Silverado. They had succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash and resulting fire. County Attorney O’Brien said the crash investigation is still ongoing but is making “rapid and meaningful progress”.

Investigators are currently reviewing video footage of the crash along with crash reconstruction data, medical reports and witness accounts to determine the cause of this tragic event.

Investigators hope that preliminary findings of their analysis will be made available to the Phelps County Attorney’s Office within the next couple of days which will allow them to determine what happened and whether any criminal charges are necessitated.