snow
Wintry weather contributed to crashes in Nebraska this weekend that claimed one life and critically injured a second person.

Snow on Easter — in some areas up to 11 inches — caused about two dozen crashes on Nebraska highways, including one that killed a Grand Island woman.

Ramona Senkbile, 84, died in a crash on U.S. Highway 30 in Grand Island on Sunday, the Nebraska State Patrol said.

Cody Thomas, a patrol spokesman, said Senkbile lost control on the snow and her vehicle was struck by an oncoming pickup.

Thomas said at least two dozen crashes occurred from midnight to late Sunday afternoon. Additionally, he said, the State Patrol assisted about 70 motorists Sunday.

The heaviest snow seemed to fall in Thayer County along the Nebraska-Kansas border. The village of Carleton reported 11 inches of snow by early afternoon, and nearby Belvidere had 10.8.

Shickley in Fillmore County measured 8 inches of snow, and Blue Hill in Webster County reported 7.5. Minden in Kearney County had 7.5 inches of snow, and 6.5 inches fell in Hastings in Adams County.

Hastings set a daily record for snowfall with the 5.1 inches that fell Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was 3 inches, set in 1936. Sunday's snow also was the ninth-highest total for any day in the month of April, the weather service said.

Lincoln, on the northern edge of the snowstorm, recorded just 0.8 of an inch of snow.

Friday night into Saturday, strong winds that accompanied a descending cold front may have knocked a driver from his motorcycle, critically injuring him.

The man veered off Nebraska Highway 36 near Bennington about midnight Friday, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said.

The motorcyclist, an unidentified Bennington man, was in the intensive care unit at Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy on Saturday, Sgt. Nate Kovarik said.

The man's girlfriend, who was driving a vehicle behind the motorcycle when the crash occurred, told investigators that it appeared that gusty winds blew him off the road east of 168th Street.

The Sheriff's Office considered the winds a contributing factor in the crash, Kovarik said.

The National Weather Service office in Valley measured gusts of up to 43 mph in the area just before midnight, when the crash was reported.

World-Herald staff writer Susan Szalewski contributed to this report.