By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

A Larned man was injured last week when he was thrown from his vehicle after it vaulted off US-56 and caught fire on impact.

Robert G. Enriquez, 55, was driving his 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier when it went off the road at 3:30 a.m. Oct. 7. The Chevrolet careened 810 feet, coming to rest in a ditch 96 feet north of 350th Rd.

A Tampa ambulance rushed Enriquez directly to Via-Christi-St. Francis Hospital, Wichita, with disabling injuries.

St. Francis is a level I trauma center, which was why the ambulance went directly there instead of to a closer facility, EMS director Travis Parmley said.

Level I trauma centers have the highest possible clearance in treating medical issues and serve as central hubs within the trauma system.

Whether he was thrown from the car or the vehicle caught fire first was unknown, according to sheriff’s department accident reports.

The cause of the accident also remains unknown, undersheriff David Huntley said.

“We can’t always determine why they left the roadway,” he said. “All we can determine is that they left the roadway and where. Unless he remembers, we wouldn’t have any way to know.”

While Huntley had never seen an incident like that, he wasn’t incredibly shocked to hear about it.

“Accidents never take place the same way,” he said. “All I know is it left the roadway and caught fire.”

A Hillsboro ambulance also responded because Marion’s ambulance was at another call, Parmley said, and a Hillsboro paramedic went with Tampa ambulance to St. Francis.