11-Year-Old Boy Picking Up Crashed Dirt Bike Is Fatally Struck by Another Rider at Fla. Track

An 11-year-old boy crashed a dirt bike at a Florida motocross track and was fatally struck by another rider as he reached for his bike, police said.

At 10 a.m. on Sunday, the boy was practicing on a dirt bike at Dade City Motocross when he jumped off a hill and crashed his bike, police said in a release obtained by PEOPLE. Despite his unknown injuries, police said the boy began picking up his 85cc dirt bike to continue or exit the track.

Police said that as the boy grabbed the bike, another cyclist jumped off the same hill, striking the victim on the upper body. Medics on the scene immediately assessed his injuries, ultimately airlifting him to the nearest hospital.

Just four hours later, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office contacted police, informing them that the 11-year-old had died. His name has not been released at this time.

While the case remains under investigation, a spokesperson from the Dade City Police Department told PEOPLE that the case is being considered an accident and that there was no criminal intent.

Randy Yoho, owner of Dade City Motocross, told Spectrum News 13 that they do everything possible to keep the sport safe, including having flaggers, a groomed track and medics at the scene. Following the accident, it was those on-site medics who immediately attended to the 11-year-old boy. 

Yoho told the station that the section of the track where the boy was hit is a slow section and that the jump has been a part of the track for 40 years. He said he could not remember a previous accident in that section.

Yoho and his family are torn up over the tragedy, he told the outlet. 

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Dade City Policy.

Fatal motocross accidents have occurred in the past, including the death of newly-elected Georgia mayor Perry Bell last September. At the Lazy River Motocross event near Dalton, Georgia, Bell died from blunt force trauma to the chest, according to multiple outlets. 

“It was an unavoidable accident,” Murray County Deputy Coroner Jonathan Sosebee told The Daily News Tribune after Bell’s death. “From what I understand, he was on a jump and then he crashed on top of a jump. There was another rider right behind him and he was unable to do anything … he wasn’t able to see him to avoid it.”

Newly-Elected Georgia Mayor, 54, Dies in Motocross Accident: ‘A True Friend and Much More’

Interim mayor Gary Crisp told WSB Radio, “They brought a helicopter in… Flew him to a trauma center but he didn’t make it. He passed away.”

He added, “He was just a caring person for the community and just wanted to help the people who lived here.”

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Source: HIS Education