A year-old jailhouse phone call was used to connect an Ohio man to a fatal collision on a Kentucky highway where an 18-year-old college student was killed by the man’s tire that fell off his truck.
Ricky A. Raider was indicted earlier this month by a grand jury for the freak accident that killed University of Kentucky student Lauren Collins, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office announced on June 21.
Collins, a rising sophomore and fashion merchandising major, was driving southbound on the highway near the Ohio border when the runaway tire smashed into her car around 12:15 a.m. on July 16, 2023.
Raider was traveling northbound when the tire allegedly broke off his truck and rolled across the concrete barrier, striking the windshield of Collins’ white 2012 Buick LaCrosse.
First responders extracted Collins from her car before rushing her to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
Collins, the single occupant of her car, died at the hospital.
Six days after the fatal crash, Raider, 37, reported himself to the Independence Police Department, admitting “he lost a tire on the interstate over the past weekend but didn’t believe his tire had hit anyone.”
Months later, Sergent Jeff Nagy of the department’s Accident Reconstruction Unit obtained a recording of a phone recording Raider had with a female inmate inside the Bullitt County Detention Center, 108 miles southwest of the Independence Police Department.
The prison call took place the night Collins was killed.
During his conversation, Raider allegedly admitted driving northbound in his 1993 Ford F-250 when a tire dismounted off his truck.
Raider told the female caller that he watched the tire crash into Collins’ car and “knew the collision likely resulted in someone being hurt or killed,” the sheriff’s office said.
After watching the crash, Raider allegedly remounted the tire and fled the scene.
“What he did was he stole lug nuts from other wheels to secure that tire just to get it up the road and off of the interstate,” Major Philip Ridgell with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office told WXIX.
Raider was arrested and charged with one count of Leaving the Scene of an Accident/Failure to Render Aid with Death or Serious Physical Injury, a Class D Felony, and one count of Persistent Felony Offender 1st Offense.
He was booked into Boone County Detention Center and is being held on a $40,000 cash bond.
Raider appeared in court Wednesday and requested a public defender to represent him and is due back in court on July 24, the outlet reported.
