Police said an Ohio man’s claim that he didn’t know the tire that came off his truck might have killed someone was shot down by a phone call he made while he was in jail a year ago.
Reports from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office say that Lauren Collins, an 18-year-old rising sophomore at the University of Kentucky studying fashion merchandising, died after a tire went off the road and crashed through her windshield just after midnight on July 16, 2023.
Six days after the accident, Ricky A. Raider, 37, went to the Independence Police Department and said, “he lost a tire on the interstate over the weekend but didn’t think his tire had hit anyone.” The office said this in a news release on June 21.
But Sgt. Jeff Nagy of the Independence Police Department’s Accident Reconstruction Unit got a recording of a phone call between Raider and a female inmate at the Bullitt County Detention Center, which is about 100 miles away from that police department. The recording painted a different picture of the accident, which meant the driver could be charged with a crime.
Raider told the woman who called him that his 1993 Ford F-250 had a flat tire earlier that night, which is what the Boone County Sheriff’s Office wrote.
He told the inmate he “witnessed the tire collide with Collins’ vehicle” plus “knew that the collision likely resulted in someone being hurt or killed.”
He said he got the tire, which was lying on the concrete block between the lanes going north and south, put it back on his truck, and then ran away.
Maj. Philip Ridgell of the Boone County Sheriff’s Office told Fox 19 that the person “stole lug nuts from other wheels to secure that tire just to get it up the road and off of the interstate.”
The office wrote that on June 4, Raider was charged with continuing to commit felonies after his first crime and leaving the scene of an accident without helping someone who was seriously hurt or killed.
Online jail records show that he was put into the Boone County Jail on June 12 and is still there on a $40,000 bond. Fox 19 reported that he asked for a public attorney when he went to court on Wednesday. His next court date is July 24.
Police said an Ohio man’s claim that he didn’t know the tire that came off his truck might have killed someone was shot down by a phone call he made while he was in jail a year ago.
Reports from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office say that Lauren Collins, an 18-year-old rising sophomore at the University of Kentucky studying fashion merchandising, died after a tire went off the road and crashed through her windshield just after midnight on July 16, 2023.
Six days after the accident, Ricky A. Raider, 37, went to the Independence Police Department and said, “he lost a tire on the interstate over the weekend but didn’t think his tire had hit anyone.” The office said this in a news release on June 21.
But Sgt. Jeff Nagy of the Independence Police Department’s Accident Reconstruction Unit got a recording of a phone call between Raider and a female inmate at the Bullitt County Detention Center, which is about 100 miles away from that police department. The recording painted a different picture of the accident, which meant the driver could be charged with a crime.
Raider told the woman who called him that his 1993 Ford F-250 had a flat tire earlier that night, which is what the Boone County Sheriff’s Office wrote.
He told the inmate he “witnessed the tire collide with Collins’ vehicle” plus “knew that the collision likely resulted in someone being hurt or killed.”
He said he got the tire, which was lying on the concrete block between the lanes going north and south, put it back on his truck, and then ran away.
Maj. Philip Ridgell of the Boone County Sheriff’s Office told Fox 19 that the person “stole lug nuts from other wheels to secure that tire just to get it up the road and off of the interstate.”
The office wrote that on June 4, Raider was charged with continuing to commit felonies after his first crime and leaving the scene of an accident without helping someone who was seriously hurt or killed.
Online jail records show that he was put into the Boone County Jail on June 12 and is still there on a $40,000 bond. Fox 19 reported that he asked for a public attorney when he went to court on Wednesday. His next court date is July 24.
