By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
Detectives with the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Department are still investigating the death of a 13-year-old boy from the Woodlawn area who was killed Saturday evening when he was struck by a car while riding his bike, but they say it appears to have been an accident.
Detective Matt Edwards said the name of the driver of the car will not be released until the investigation is completed.
“We know alcohol wasn’t a factor. Right now, we’re trying to determine if speed was a factor,” Edwards said.
Jacob Mathew Allen was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:46 p.m., about 45 minutes after he was hit.
Sheriff Jim Roberson said Tuesday morning that he has not yet seen the report of the accident, but his investigators have told him that the boy didn’t stop when he rode out from Joyner Loop onto Mt. Tabor Road.
“The lady was coming down the road, and he scooted right through the stop sign,” the sheriff said.
It’s very sad, the sheriff said, but not surprising. Mt. Tabor Road, a high-traffic road, is home to a lot of families with young children who use the road to ride bikes, scooters and skateboards.
“It’s a fast road,” the sheriff said.
“I’ve talked to kids out there before and told them that’s not a playground,” he said. “There’s just a lot of young children out there unsupervised. A lot of the time they’ll be walking right in the middle of the road.
“You’ve got to supervise your kids,” he said.
The sheriff said speeding is a problem all over the county. And when high speed is combined with the distraction caused by cell phones, accidents are inevitable.
Asked if the driver of the car was using a phone at the time of the accident, the sheriff said he didn’t believe she was.
