Family of teen hit by truck: ‘How can someone be so cruel?’
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AMMON — A 15-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after being hit by a pickup truck Thursday night while riding his bike home from work.
Keeton Doggett was in a crosswalk at 1st Street and Hitt Road around 8:25 p.m. when a white pickup truck slammed into him and drove away.
“The truck tires caused all of his internal organs — colon, stomach, intestines, everything — to be pushed up into the diaphragm causing it to split in half,” Clint Risenmay, Keeton’s uncle, tells EastIdahoNews.com. “His pelvis is broken in four places and he’s expected to be in the hospital for three to four weeks and in a wheelchair until his pelvis heals.”
Keeton had just finished his shift at Arctic Circle on 1st Street when he got his bike to head home. Risenmay says the Hillcrest High School student pushed the crosswalk button and waited for the signal to tell him to go.
“He proceeded to go through the crosswalk toward the gas station and almost made it to the end when a big lifted white Chevy truck with a chrome push bar, big tires and tinted windows turned right onto 1st Street, progressively speeding through the intersection,” Risenmay says. “The front tire ran over his legs and knocked him to the ground. The back tires ran over his body and left him in the fetal position until help came.”
Keeton was rushed into surgery at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
Bonneville County Sheriff deputies have been searching for the suspect’s truck, which was observed leaving the scene through the Tesoro Gas Station parking lot southbound on Hitt Road.
Deputies are asking anyone who may have been in the area and witnessed the crash or has information on the suspect to call (208) 529-1200. Tips can also be reported anonymously to Crime Stoppers at (208) 522-1983 or online by clicking here.
Risenmay says his nephew is trying to keep his spirits high and is making the hospital nurses laugh by telling jokes. The family hopes whoever is responsible for hitting Keeton is quickly found.
“How can someone be so cruel? How could someone be so cowardly that they run from their mistakes not knowing if they killed someone?,” Risenmay says. “It’s a miracle that Keeton is even alive. I hope the person who did this sees this and turns themselves in. I hope they have everlasting guilt and this haunts them. I just don’t understand how anyone can do such a thing. I’m baffled.”