After man's tire fell off and went through teen's windshield, causing fatal crash, he reattached tire and fled scene: Sheriff

Inset top: Ricky Raider (Boone County Sheriff’s Office). Inset bottom: Lauren Collins (via WXIX). Background: the scene of the accident where Collins died last year (via WXIX)

A 37-year-old man from Ohio has been arrested nearly a year he allegedly caused a fatal accident that left an 18-year-old Kentucky girl dead before fleeing the scene.

Ricky Raider, who authorities say admitted the following day on a recorded prison phone call to watching the crash, was taken into custody and charged with leaving the scene of an accident/failure to render aid with death or serious physical injury and one count of first-degree persistent felony offender in the death of Lauren A. Collins, authorities announced.

According to a news release from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, deputies at about 12:15 a.m. on July 16, 2023, responded to the 176.5-mile marker in response to a single vehicle collision. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located the driver of the vehicle — later identified as Collins — suffering from life-threatening injuries.

Collins was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center by the Walton Fire Department for treatment. She succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead. She had just completed her freshman year at the University of Kentucky.

Investigators determined that Collins was driving a white 2012 Buick LaCrosse southbound on Interstate 75 when “her windshield was suddenly struck by a tire.”

“Deputies believe that another vehicle, possibly a dually pickup truck, was traveling northbound on I-75 when its tire suddenly broke away causing it to roll out of control and over the concrete barrier, where it ultimately struck Collins’ vehicle,” deputies said in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

The investigation into the crash was headed up by the Accident Reconstruction Unit of the sheriff’s office.

Raider on July 22, 2023, came forward and reported himself to the Independence Police Department in Kentucky. He told authorities that he was driving northbound on Interstate 75 on the night Collins got into the accident and confirmed that he “lost a tire” but said he “didn’t believe his tire had hit anyone,” per the release.

However, several months after the fatal collision, investigators obtained a recorded phone conversation between Raider and a female inmate he was visiting at the Bullitt County Detention Center, which is about 100 miles southwest of Independence. The conversation between Raider and the inmate took place only hours after the crash, which Raider allegedly admitted to watching happen.

“During their conversation, which took place on July 16, 2023, Raider admitted that he was traveling northbound on I-75 when the tire dismounted from his 1993 Ford F-250,” deputies wrote in the release. “Raider went on to say that he witnessed the tire collide with Collins’ vehicle and knew that the collision likely resulted in someone being hurt or killed. After the collision, his tire rested near the concrete barrier that divides northbound and southbound I-75 and Raider fled the scene after mounting the tire back onto his truck.”

Major Philip Ridgell with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office told Newport, Kentucky, Fox affiliate WXIX that in order to flee the scene, Raider “stole lug nuts from other wheels to secure that tire just to get it up the road and off of the interstate.”

Raider is currently being held at the Boone County Jail in lieu of $40,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial conference on July 24.

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