SNYDERVILLE, Utah (KUTV) — The 13-year-old boy who was run over by a box truck in Summit County has undergone multiple surgeries after suffering injuries to his face, and possibly his leg and ankle.
“He is in stable condition, which is great news,” explained Sgt. Skyler Talbot with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. “He’s expected to be released from the hospital in the next several days.”
The incident occurred around 11 p.m. on Friday.
According to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, four teenage boys were riding e-motorcycles, which belonged to one of their fathers.
Two boys got off to walk, while the other two continued to ride before crashing on Kilby Road.
A driver stopped to help and turned on their truck’s forward-facing spotlight.
As one of the boys walked back into the road to retrieve one of the e-motorcycles, he was struck by a box truck.
The driver of the truck reported that they were blinded by the other truck’s spotlight.
When asked if anyone, including the driver who turned on their spotlight, was in the wrong, Sgt. Talbot said, “The good Samaritan who passed by, you know what a difficult thing for him to deal with. I don’t think he had anything but the best of intentions, and quite frankly, I think that his presence – even given that the spotlight sounds like it did contribute to the accident – I think his being there still likely was a very good thing. He was able to get the one boy out of the road.”
Sgt. Talbot added that, despite it being against the law for 13-year-olds to ride an e-motorcycle, he doesn’t think charges will be issued against any of the boys involved.
“The parents, though, they could potentially face charges,” he explained. “Whether they knew the kids were out on them, whether the kids took them without their permission, you know, you kind of get into what the parents knew. But it really highlights the importance of if parents are going to make these available to their children, they’ve really got to do a good job of knowing where the e-motorcycles are at, and when the kids can access them. We don’t encourage 13-year-old boys to be out at 11:00 at night riding these e-motorcycles.”
Sgt. Talbot said it doesn’t appear the parents knew the teens had the e-motorcycles. He also said the driver who hit the boy could potentially face infraction-level offenses, but no citations have been issued for now.
Sgt. Talbot added that the stretch of road where the accident happened isn’t well-lit, and it’s a good reminder for drivers everywhere to be aware, especially at night.
“I think this was just a lot of a series of really unfortunate events that everything lined up to go this direction,” he explained. “This could’ve been much worse, and we’re very fortunate that it wasn’t. But there are some discussions and lessons I think we can all learn from this.”
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