Keefeton teen injured in bicycle wreck

By Elizabeth Ridenour
Assistant City Editor

May 11, 2007 11:34 pm

— KEEFETON — A 15-year-old Keefeton boy was injured Friday afternoon when he rode a bicycle into the path of an oncoming vehicle on a Muskogee County road.
Dustin Hayes, 15, was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa and was stable, but did have a broken arm, some scrapes from the asphalt, possibly some internal injuries and was going to be admitted, said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Ron Watson. A condition was not available from the hospital.
According to witness Timothy Allison, 14, Dustin and his 12-year-old brother had been racing bicycles in the family’s driveway about a mile and a half northeast of Keefeton on a two-lane asphalt road about 5:45 p.m. when the accident occurred. Dustin was injured when he collided with a westbound 2000 Ford Explorer driven by Jacy Kyle Messer, 24, of Muskogee. Messer and his wife were wearing seat belts, and their child was in a car seat, Watson said. None of them were injured.
Timothy said he was standing near the end of the driveway, watching the Hayes brothers as they raced down the driveway. Dustin was riding Allison’s bicycle.
“He didn’t see the car because of the berm,” Allison said. “He just barely slid in the road. It (SUV) flipped him.”
According to Watson, Timothy and another boy were at the end of the driveway and yelled at Dustin and his brother to stop.
“The boy locks it up and slides out in the road,” Watson said.
Dustin was not wearing a helmet when the accident happened, he said.
Dustin’s grandfather, Walter Knox, lives just to the west of Dustin’s home and had been in touch with Dustin’s mother.
“I just happened to be talking to her on the phone when he got hit,” he said, standing in the light rain that had begun to fall after the collision.
The boys knew better than to ride out into the road, he said.
“Bicycle brakes don’t stop on a downhill grade in gravel,” he said.

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