Boys hurt after jumping from back of moving truck in Central KY. The driver kept going.
Two boys were hurt Friday night when they jumped from the back of a moving pickup truck in Scott County.
The driver of the truck, who police say did not stop, is facing charges.
One of the boys told law enforcement he and his cousin jumped out because the driver, his uncle Austin Brooks, 40, of Sadieville, had been drinking, and they were afraid he was going to get on the interstate.
The other child child, Brooks’ son, was in a coma at the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital and has a possible brain injury, according to a police uniform citation filed in court by the Scott County Sheriff’s Department.
The boy who was able to talk with law enforcement suffered what were described as minor injuries. He told the sheriff’s office his uncle “had been drinking with his girlfriend” and was intoxicated, the document states.
“He advised his uncle ran out of beer and wanted to get more,” according to the citation.
With Brooks at the wheel, the two juveniles got into the back of the pickup truck.
The ages of the boys were not listed in court documents.
Brooks’ nephew said he “was driving fast on Porter (Road) considering the roads were wet from the rain,” the citation says.
The boys, fearful that Brooks was going to get on the interstate, began to yell for him to stop and “even went to the extent of banging hard pieces of metal on the truck to get his attention,” according to the citation.
“Due to his intoxicated state, they were in fear for their lives if they were to enter the interstate,” the document says.
The boys jumped from the moving vehicle near the Love’s Truck Stop off Porter Road at the 136 overpass in Scott County.
The boy who was alert told law enforcement Brooks “never stopped to see if they were okay” and kept going, leaving the injured children alone.
Brooks was arrested early Saturday at an address on Hermon Green Road and taken to the Scott County Detention Center.
He is charged with two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, two counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and one count of leaving the scene of an accident/failure to render aid.
