(KNZA)--Speed is being blamed as a factor in an early Friday afternoon Brown County crash that claimed one life.

The Kansas Highway Patrol identifies the victim as 40-year-old Ernest Reynolds III.

The Patrol says the Morrill resident was behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Eclipse when the fatal wreck occurred.

According to the Patrol's report, Reynolds was westbound on 280th Road, a mile east of Hamlin, at Horned Owl Road, driving at a high rate of speed.

The Patrol's investigation shows that Reynolds lost control of the car, which left the roadway to the south, went through a barbed wire fence and a telephone pole before going airborne over a creek bed and crashing into a pasture south of the roadway.

The Patrol says Reynolds was not buckled up when the wreck happened shortly after 12 noon.

Funeral arrangements for Reynolds, who has ties to Atchison, are pending.