A prison phone call made a year ago was used to link an Ohio man to a fatal Kentucky highway crash in which an 18-year-old college student was killed by a tire that fell from the man’s truck.
Ricky A. Rader was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month for the freak accident that led to the death of University of Kentucky student Lauren Collins. The sheriff’s office announced June 21st.
Collins, a sophomore majoring in fashion merchandising, was driving south on the highway near the Ohio state line around 12:15 a.m. on July 16, 2023, when a runaway tire struck her vehicle.
As Rader was traveling north, a tire on the truck allegedly broke off, rolled through a concrete barrier and struck the windshield of Collins’ white 2012 Buick LaCrosse.
Emergency personnel extricated Collins from the vehicle and rushed her to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with serious, life-threatening injuries.
Collins, the only occupant of the car, died at the hospital.
Six days after the fatal accident, Rader, 37, turned himself in to the Independence Police Department and confessed, “My tire came off on the interstate last weekend, but I didn’t think it hit anyone.”
A few months later, Sergeant Jeff Nagy of the police department’s accident reconstruction unit obtained a recording of a phone call Rader had had with a female inmate inside the Bullitt County Jail, 108 miles southwest of the Independence Police Department.
The call to the prison was made the night Collins was killed.
During the conversation, Rader allegedly admitted he was traveling north in a 1993 Ford F-250 when a tire came off the truck.
According to the sheriff’s office, Rader told the woman who called the station that he saw the tire strike Collins’ vehicle and “knew there was a good chance someone would be injured or killed in the collision.”
Rader allegedly witnessed the collision, then put the tires back on and fled the scene.
“He would steal nuts from other tires to secure the tires and then just take them off the highway and onto the road,” said Maj. Philip Ridgell with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office. He told WXIX.
Rader was arrested and charged with one count of leaving the scene of an accident/failure to render aid to a person who caused death or serious injury (a class D felony) and being a habitual felony offender 1st offense.
He was booked into the Boone County Jail and is being held on $40,000 bail.
According to the outlet, Rader appeared in court on Wednesday, requested a public defender and is scheduled to appear again on July 24.
