Today's Daily Freeman fills in some of the details on Sunday's horrific ATV accident in Rosendale, in which a dirt bike ridden by 40-year-old Paul Harper collided with a 16-year-old girl on an ATV, leaving her in critical condition.
The girl is Kaylon Smith, a junior at Kingston High School, reporter Paula Ann Mitchell reports. Kaylon's father Bill Smith told the Freeman she was riding an ATV around a family friend's backyard when Harper's dirt bike came flying out of the woods and collided with her:
“Kaylon was driving around the backyard of the house on a four-wheeler,” he said. “Because she was just putting around, she didn’t have a helmet.”
Smith said the biker “came flying out of the woods into the yard and just blindsided her.”
“He was going fast. He was airborne when he hit her. It was like this jump, and he hit her on the left side of her head,” Smith said.
The Freeman reports that Kaylon has a fractured skull and bruising on the brain, and is still in critical condition at Westchester Medical Center.
State police have still not released Kaylon Smith's name officially as the victim of the crash. On Monday evening, a state trooper told the Watershed Post that the police were not giving out her name, and would not comment on why the teenager's name was not being released. As of yesterday evening, no charges had been filed in the case.
