BURLINGAME, Kan. – An early morning single-car accident near Burlingame’s east city limit took the life of the 20-year-old driver today.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported that about 1:15 a.m. Dec. 23, 2019, Nicholas James Swanson, 20, of Shenandoah, Iowa, was driving a 2006 Ford Mustang westbound on U.S. Highway 56, near 426 E. Santa Fe Ave., Burlingame, Kan., when the vehicle left the roadway to the north, entered a yard, and struck two trees before coming to rest in a creek bed. Swanson died in the accident.

An only passenger in the car, William Vance Rhoades, 16, of Carbondale, Kan., was transported to Stormont Vail Hospital, Topeka, Kan., with suspected minor injuries.

KHP reported that neither occupant of the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident.