Friday, November 2, 2012

Toddler Struck and Killed by a Texting Driver

HOLTON, Ind. —
A 14-month-old boy was killed when he ran into the road and was struck by a pickup truck.

Ripley County deputies said Adrik Hanaway was playing with his older siblings in the yard just before 7 p.m.when he ran out onto Hopewell Road near Holton just before 7 p.m.

"We (were) in the front yard, (and) all I heard, my daughter yelling," said mother Alicia Hanaway. "She goes, 'Mommy, mommy!' and I turned around and the baby was in the road."

About that time, Jonathon Phillips, 19, of Holton, was his 1992 Ford Ranger pick-up heading westbound on Hopewell Road at approximately 38 mph.

Phillips said he had been texting before the accident and looked down to set his cell phone down when he hit something in the roadway.

Phillips said he thought he had struck an animal, and turned around to see what he had hit. When Phillips returned, he realized he had struck a child.

Hanaway was airlifted to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis, where he died later Thursday evening. A neighbor ran to assist the boy, checking his pulse and beginning CPR as a sheriff's deputy arrive. After that, he tried to comfort Hanaway.

"I got a hold of her, put my arms around her," said neighbor Robert Buchanan. "I don't know her from beans. I put my arm around her, put her head on my shoulder and said, 'Honey, cry it out.'"
The incident remains under investigation.

Re-Posted by Vincent Rush of Lynx Telematics and Lynxsafe Teen Driving Monitors with "Anti-Texting" technology.

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