The Kansas Highway Patrol incorrectly gave Anthony Barrera’s age as “0” in a report posted on its crash logs website telling about the July 27 crash in which the 17-year-old Wichita youth died on the Kansas Turnpike north of Emporia.
That mistake, which was later corrected, was made as the KHP sought to comply with a practice it had in place banning the release of the names and ages of juvenile accident victims, said KHP spokeswoman Capt. Candice Breshears.
But the KHP plans to go back to making those names and ages public, Breshears told The Capital-Journal in an email Wednesday.
“We will be revising our practice to permit releasing names and ages for all persons involved in crashes, including juveniles,” she said.
Change seeks to balance respect of privacy against public interest
The question of whether to release information about juveniles in its online crash logs has been a recurring issue for the KHP, Breshears said.
“This is a complicated issue and, at times, not well-understood,” she said. “We are in the process of correcting this problem in a manner that respects the privacy concerns of crash victims while balancing the public’s interest as reflected in the applicable statutes.”