‘Hero’ college student dies after ‘rushing to help’ during Kansas car crash, family says

A Kansas State University veterinary student loved to help people and animals, her family says, and now she’s being remembered as a hero who died after “rushing to help” another driver in need.

Autumn Johnson of Alaska had run through traffic on Interstate 70 in Shawnee County when she was struck by a vehicle shortly before 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, according to a Kansas Highway Patrol crash report.

A sheriff’s deputy said Johnson, 21, was one of a few drivers who had tried to help at a rollover crash on the interstate, KSNT reported, before she was hit by a box truck.

The crash report says she was taken to a Topeka hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

“Autumn Johnson died rushing to help total strangers in their time of crisis,” her family said in a GoFundMe. “That is who she was and what her passion encompassed; helping those who needed assistance.”

Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine confirmed Johnson was a first-year veterinary student.

“We all share in shock and sorrow at this tragic loss,” Dean Bonnie Rush said. “Autumn was an incredible individual.”

Her family says she was attending K-State to pursue a degree in veterinary medicine, a step in her “lifelong goal” of becoming a surgical veterinarian.

“Autumn you have succeeded,” her dad wrote in a letter shared on the fundraising page. “Make no doubt about it Autumn, you are my light, my love, my reason for living, and my HERO.”

The 20-year-old driver in the rollover crash was taken to a hospital “with non-life-threatening injuries,” WIBW reported, and the 37-year-old driver of the truck that hit Johnson was not hurt.

This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 11:50 AM with the headline "‘Hero’ college student dies after ‘rushing to help’ during Kansas car crash, family says."