Imperial man killed in Hayes County accident

    Services are pending for Shane Huff, 30, of Imperial, who died in a two-vehicle accident Sunday afternoon in Hayes County, between Wauneta and Hamlet.
    Friends and family were remembering Huff this week, a Chase County resident for 12 years.
    His wife, Jenn, said family was everything to him, and their daughter, Lily, almost 3, was at the forefront of it.
    “Lily was the most important person in the world to him,” she said.
    “He loved spending time with her.”
    Music was also a passion for Shane, she said, and he learned to play the guitar by ear. He couldn’t read sheet music, she said.
    “It was a form of therapy for him,” she said.
    Huff was employed at Pivot Electric, joining the business about a year ago. He worked 10 years at The Auto Shop before that, and also was employed at Artistic Woodworking for a short time after he moved to Imperial, she said.
    Jenn said Shane was returning to Imperial Sunday after being in McCook, and being Mother’s Day, had planned to stop to see his mother, Carol Macklin, in Wauneta.
    The accident Sunday is being investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol.
    The crash happened at 3:40 p.m. CT Sunday on Highway 6, after which Hayes County Sheriff Tom Dow requested assistance from the Patrol, said Cody Thomas, NSP’s Public Relations Director.
    Preliminary investigation shows that the Chevrolet Tahoe Huff was driving was westbound on Highway 6 when it swerved into the eastbound lane directly in front of an eastbound tractor-trailer from Kansas.
    The collision was head-on and caused both vehicles to catch fire, Thomas said.
     Huff was pronounced dead at the scene. The two occupants of the tractor-trailer, whose names have not been released, were transported to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, Thomas said.
    Hayes County Sheriff Dow said the driver of the semi from Kansas was taken to McCook Community Hospital. His passenger was air-lifted from Palisade where Palisade EMS met the helicopter, which then transported him to Great Plains Medical Center in North Platte.
    After the accident, Dow said Highway 6 was closed until about 1 a.m. Monday for the investigation and clearing of the vehicles and debris.
    Westbound traffic was rerouted back to Highway 25. Eastbound traffic was initially stopped at Wauneta, said Fire Chief Tanner Bardsley, but NE Dept. of Transportation personnel later moved the road block to Enders so traffic could be rerouted to Highway 34 by way of Highway 61.
    Cause of the crash remains under investigation, Thomas said.
    The NSP was assisted on the scene by the Palisade, Hayes Center and Wauneta Volunteer Fire Departments, sheriff’s offices from Hayes, Hitchcock and Chase counties, as well as the Nebraska Dept. of Transportation and Nebraska Game and Parks.  
    Chase County Sheriff Kevin Mueller said three of his deputies assisted at the scene with traffic control.