WQXE News
The Kentucky State Police is investigating a fatal collision that occurred in Breckinridge County Saturday.
According to KSP Post Four, at around 5:10 p.m. CDT on July 26 Breckinridge County Dispatch requested troopers investigate a two-vehicle collision near the 13,000 block of KY 261.
The KSP says the preliminary investigation indicates 48-year-old Joseph Maynard of Owensboro was operating a truck heading south on KY 261 when for unknown reasons the vehicle crossed the center line, striking a northbound truck head-on and causing both vehicles to become engulfed in flames.
Maynard was pronounced dead at the scene by the Breckinridge County Coroner’s Office. Also pronounced dead at the scene by the coroner’s office were the operator of the northbound truck, 22-year-old Hunter Lyons, and a one-year-old juvenile in his vehicle. An adult female passenger in Lyons’s vehicle was flown from the scene to the University of Louisville Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The KSP’s investigation of the collision is ongoing. The affected portion of KY 261 was closed for several hours for accident reconstruction.
Elizabethtown Independent Schools invites district families to come out this Friday and celebrate the start of the upcoming school year.
“From 6 to 8 p.m. at Elizabethtown High School, it’s our back to school bash,” said Elizabethtown High School and Valley View Education Center Youth Service Coordinator Shay Ditto. “We’ve called it Panther Fest 2025. We would love to see our families there. We’ve got inflatables, Kona Ice, a DJ, vendors, and everything that families would really need to kick off the school year right.”
Pantherfest is a free event for EIS students and their families.
“It’s just for them and anything that they would need for the school year,” Ditto said. “I’m sure Panther Fest will be glad to help with all the resources that families and students will need to kick off the school year strong.”
Multiple community partners will be on hand with information on resources available to students and families. The event is sponsored by the school district and the Elizabethtown Independent Family Resource and Youth Services Center.
With Kentucky’s fall hunting season getting under way in mid-August, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is helping to prepare new hunters for a safe and successful season.
KFW will be offering 20 in-person hunter education classes and live fire-range opportunities across the commonwealth as part of Hunter Education Day this Saturday, August 2. The annual education opportunity is held in conjunction with National Shooting Sports Month.
KFW offers a range of hunter education courses including hunter ethics, wildlife conservation and identification, field care of game, first aid, firearm safety, archery, and muzzleloading. Courses are offered in person and online, with the final sessions for in-person courses including a written test and a live-fire exercise while online participants may complete their live-fire exercise at a KFW range day.
All in-person courses and range days are open to participants nine years of age and older. The courses are free and participants will be provided with necessary equipment for testing free of charge, but registration is required.
Area locations participating in Hunter Education Day include the Knob Creek Gun Range in West Point and the Grayson County Ag Park in Leitchfield. Learn more about Hunter Education Day and other hunting requirements at fw.ky.gov.
Meteorologist C.J. Padgett with the National Weather Service in Louisville says as this week gets under way, we’re not really seeing a break in the heat.
“Highs for Monday through Wednesday are going to be in the mid to upper 90s,” Padgett said. “It’s going to be fairly humid as well, still. We’re going to see heat indices in the lower 100s. I wouldn’t be surprised if the heat advisory that is currently ongoing will continue into next week.”
Padgett says it looks like highs will come down to the 80s this Thursday and Friday. He says while temperatures right now are trending a little above the average for this time of year, it isn’t anything the area hasn’t seen before.
“I hate to even call it a heat wave,” Padgett said. “It’s more of just a warm stretch of weather, and just with the humid air masses, it’s kind of amplifying those hotter temperatures in place, so it’s not something that’s completely like something that we haven’t seen before. It’s just kind of: it’s summer, it’s hot. We’re just a few degrees above normal type scenarios.”
Padgett says remember to take precautions in the hot and humid weather. Stay in the shade when you can, limit strenuous activity to the cooler parts of the day, and drink plenty of water.