(Holton, Ind.) - A toddler who was hit and killed by a pickup truck in Ripley County last Thursday was asleep inside his father’s van before the accident.
Fourteen-month-old Adrik Hanaway, of North Vernon, died at an Indianapolis hospital following the accident on Hopewell Road near Holton.
Police say the child’s father had left him buckled up and asleep in the driveway. When he woke up, one of his older siblings let him out of the van. Hanaway then began playing in the home’s front yard with his brother and sister.
How he came to be in the road remains under investigation.
The driver who hit Hanaway, 19-year-old Jonathon Phillips, of Holton, told police he was texting just before he hit Hanaway. Phillips initially thought he had hit an animal, but soon realized it was a child and stopped at the scene.
Ripley County Sheriff’s investigators are handing their investigation’s findings over to the prosecutor’s office to decide what charges, if any, should be filed.
Drugs or alcohol are not believed to be factors in the deadly accident.
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Child, 1, Struck By Truck, Dies