Teen skateboarder killed after hanging on to Jeep

By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 7, 2008 at 6:38 p.m.

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Arvada police continued to investigate today an accident that killed a teen skateboarder over the weekend near Oak Park.

The victim, Austin Ayers, 17, died Sunday at St. Anthony's Central Hospital after he was hit earlier in the afternoon by a Jeep Wrangler that had been pulling him seconds before on the 6500 block of Oak Street, Arvada police said.

The driver of the Jeep Wrangler was only identified as a 34-year-old man, and his name was being withheld until the investigation into the accident is finished, Susan Medina, police spokeswoman, said.

However, Medina said the victim and the motorist were not related and did not know each other, and detectives were trying to figure out why and how the teenager hung on to the passenger's side front door or window while he was being pulled by the Jeep.

The victim was riding on a long skateboard in the southbound bicycle lane on Oak Street, which is a well-traveled road for skateboarders, bicyclists and motorists, Medina said. At some point, the teenager held on to the Jeep's passenger's side door or window. After the victim let go of the Jeep he was struck by the vehicle, hurling the teenager to the pavement and causing his fatal injuries.

The speed limit is 30 mph, and detectives also were trying to figure out how fast the driver was traveling, Medina said.

• October 8, 2008

  8:36 a.m.

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  Duckster writes:

  If you're going to be stupid, you'd better be tough. This kid wasn't tough. Darwin's theory was vindicated again.

  http://lagniappeslair.blogspot.com/

• October 8, 2008

  8:52 a.m.

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  Shaggy writes:

  Sounds to me like maybe this kid hopped a ride without the jeep driver knowing.

• October 8, 2008

  8:54 a.m.

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  philvysor writes:

  Use to do this back in the day but we use to hang on to the icecream trucks. The ones that go thru the neighborhoods real slow. Then we started hanging onto school buses but we always held onto the rear bumper never on the side.

• October 8, 2008

  9:01 a.m.

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  Cowboy63 writes:

  Too bad for the kid and I feel for his family. Hopefully, the 34-year old guy was not knowingly involved.

• October 8, 2008

  9:03 a.m.

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  DenGirl writes:

  Kids think their invincible... it scares me, my son is just 4! One of our neighborhood teens was severely injured this summer after riding a skateboard fast down a hill in the DTC and hit a rock --no helmet. Teach your kids to ride safely!!!

• October 8, 2008

  9:04 a.m.

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  DenGirl writes:

  Oops. "they're"

• October 8, 2008

  9:04 a.m.

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  Marshdale writes:

  We called it hookie-bobbin back in the day. We would latch onto the rear bumber of a car or school bus and go for a ride. All of us kids did it. Smart ones and dumb ones alike. It was particularly fun on icey roads accept for when you hit that one dry patch and came to an instant stop on your face. Ouch! that hurt. In retrospect this behavior was about as dumb as it gets. I think had my dad or mother caught us we would've had our asses kicked. Thank god we all walked away.

• October 8, 2008

  9:11 a.m.

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  drubish4 writes:

  Our deepest sympathy to Austin's parents and their other children. For those of you who don't know this family, they are extremely involved and loving parents. Austin was a gifted young baseball player, as well as an extremely intelligent teenager. This accident is devastating to all who knew him. Mark and Kathy Bishard

• October 8, 2008

  9:21 a.m.

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  Gonzopozo writes:

  We did it too back in Chicago in the Winter. We called it "skitching". Grab the back bumper, slide on the ice. Not smart.

  Condolences to the family.

• October 8, 2008

  9:33 a.m.

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  FlyfishDude52 writes:

  gonzopozo, we called it skitching, too! And here I thought that originated in South Dakota! Agreed it wasn't too smart but then we weren't very smart back then & probably did a lot of things like that which would get you arrested today. I think it was better back then. They hadn't yet begun to legislate fun!

• October 8, 2008

  9:47 a.m.

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  BigSky182 writes:

  These days it's called "skitching" and they can learn how to do it playing various skateboarder video games including Tony Hawk and Disney's skateboarder game.

• October 8, 2008

  10:23 a.m.

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  WestminsterJ writes:

  Cowboy63 is conservative, but he has a heart. Duckster, on the other hand, is a Social Darwinist a-hole.
  Condolences to the family.

• October 8, 2008

  10:35 a.m.

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  lindy46 writes:

  We knew Austin, he was a great young man.
  Steele writes: sue the driver of the jeep. Did the paper mention anything about that? Hopefully the other 17 years old reading this will recognize how ignorant people like you grab onto anything negative. Maybe they just want to read the details of their friends death, so they can mourn.

• October 8, 2008

  11:59 a.m.

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  mokey writes:

  I saw something like this the other day where a a guy on a bike was holding onto the corner of a pick up to get a lift up a hill.

  But since the speed was probably 30 - 35 mph, it was clearly not a wise thing to do.

  Any kids (most?) who take some risk in their lives could all potentially be hurt by their own actions. What I hate is, for example, in a place I lived previously, a kid was driving in the opposing direction of traffic on a bike, around a blind curve and was (surprise) hit by a car and injured. Then his parents sued the driver and the city.

  Kids do stupid things. Their brains are not completely developed. They are oblivious to or even perhaps encouraged by the risk in some things they do. Heck, go to YouTube and look at all the videos under a random seach like "stupid stunts". Sometimes they get injured or killed.

  Nobody should take a hit for this kid's actions.

• October 8, 2008

  12:32 p.m.

  Sixtysixdeuce writes:

  (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

• October 8, 2008

  2:28 p.m.

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  cpd writes:

  Kids do stupid things like this; they think they are invincible and immortal. Same with the way some of them drive. Not much we adults can do other than try to convince them that death is real and lasts for a long, long time, and keep an eye out for them. A Connecticut (where I grew up) dj use to say in the mornings to his entire audience, "You watch out for my kids and I'll watch out for yours". Good advice.

• October 8, 2008

  4:50 p.m.

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  HollyGoLightly writes:

  I agree CPD! My sympathies to the family and friends.

• October 8, 2008

  7:09 p.m.

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  Sixtysixdeuce writes:

  "Watch it mokey. If you blame the kid for his own actions, you'll be deleted."

  As can be seen from my post above.

  If I die because I lay my bike down doing triple the speed limit, I expect people to say "he had it coming". But they won't be able to say it here, because some folks get offended when responsibility is assigned where it belongs.

• October 8, 2008

  9:37 p.m.

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  Motherof3 writes:

  My deepest sympathy goes out to this family. My teenage boys knew Austin and they are extremely upset by what happend. Our prayers are with this family!!

• October 8, 2008

  9:44 p.m.

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  Mv8euk writes:

  I respect those of you who had something positive to say. I fear for those of you who can do nothing but complain about the situation. Regardless of his actions we're talking about death. A life has been lost. A life you know nothing about and have very little room to discuss. WestminsterJ I believe you have a very good point. Duckster should eat a solid knuckle sandwich for a comment like that. Austin was a rather intelligent person. But most of you wouldn't know...My condolences to his family and his friends alike. We wish you were here Austin.

• October 8, 2008

  10:55 p.m.

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  soccerchicka30 writes:

  First of all...no one who has commented knows ANYTHING about the situation. How dare any of you say such horrible, nasty, UN-TRUE things about my BROTHER! I am Haley Ayers, Austin's sister and the things some of you have said just make me sick. You have no right to bash someone like that because you don't even know him! Austin was the most creative, caring, intellegent person that i will probably ever meet and none of you can ever truely understand what happened. If you blame my parents then you are the sickest most stupid person ever. My parents gave (and still give) my brothers and i all that they have. Austin was not being an ignorant teenager. He was being the nice talkative person he is and having a pleasant conversation with someone who just happened to be in a car. PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREECH!!!! (dgodrummer and duckster and the other people who think they know all the details about things they shouldnt even be pressing their noses into)

• October 9, 2008

  6:58 p.m.

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  princesslaurenk writes:

  My heart is with you Haley. Austin was one of my best friends and hands down the most inspirational person I have ever met. He always had such amazing things to say about you and the rest of his family. you and your family are in my prayers along with everybody else from the bridge school. Hang in there

• October 9, 2008

  7:29 p.m.

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  weloveaustin writes:

  i dont understand some of the things that people are saying. do you think that austins family and freinds are not going to read your posts? dose that matter at all to any of you? maybe if you could come to his school of less then 100 kids, and see the pictures of him and read the countless letters that we have wrote him that he will never be able to read or all the candles that we lit in his honnor or maybe if you could read some of the poetry he wrote or recive some of the amazing advice that he has given us all then maybe you could try to understand what a loss this has been. im sorry to those of you who didnt get the chance to meet austin, but he has made such an impact on my life and many others and you have NO right to say anthing about this subject. we have all made stupid mistakes that somehow we lived through that we could just have easily not austin was just not so lucky. but he was meant for somthing better then this and is now doing somthing that is bigger then us. it dosent MATTER how austin died what matters is that we lost someone very great witch is obviouslly somthing you cant understand.

• October 13, 2008

  12:20 a.m.

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  Jakeit21 writes:

  I cannot tell whether I should feel angry at or sorry for the people who are speaking out against Austin. Perhaps you are callously indifferent, or maybe you’re just ignorant. Maybe that’s what causes you to attempt to know someone in death that you did not know in life. Life is precious and should not have a price put on it. “The only possible thing in the entire universe that can measure life is love.” It’s pitiful that when a precious life is taken from us, humanity reacts with spite rather than sympathy and compassion. In the short time that I knew him, Austin was never malignant, spiteful, or belligerent in any way. So why does his memory receive them in return? Austin was free, passionate, outgoing, cheerful, and endearing every moment that I knew him. Do not attempt to desecrate Austin’s memory by accusing him of stupidity. He was beyond intelligent and mature far beyond his age. That’s the other thing. Many keep referring to him as a “kid”. Well that in of itself is ignorant, for he was less of a kid than any adult I know, and possibly even more so than some. And to those that refer to his independency as “stupidity” are equally as ignorant, because being a free spirit makes one no more stupid than another, it merely sets them apart. Austin was ok with that and didn’t mind showing it. Austin and his family deserve more than people’s cruel apathy towards his passing and are wonderful, wonderful people. I’m sure that Austin is already playing his Gibson SG with all of the legends and having an amazing time. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to the Ayers family.
  -Taylor Jacobsen

• October 13, 2008

  7:14 p.m.

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  drubish4 writes:

  Another gifted young man, Taylor J., has written about this dreadful accident in a way so that folks who did not know Austin might understand this tragedy. Thanks Taylor, well put. Yes, I am sure that Austin is now having the time of life with all of those music legends! The Bishards-

• October 16, 2008

  10:40 p.m.

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  xXTheDorknessXx writes:

  I'm absolutely disgusted by the insensitivity shown by most of the people that have posted on here. you have no right to say that he somehow "deserved it" by making the mistake he made. I was one of his classmates, and I've seen kids joyride before. Yeah, it's not the best thing to do, but that does not by any means mean that you can say that he's just a "kid" and that it doesn't really mean anything (which is the vibe I'm getting here) because you've never met him. You've never known what it was like to have a conversation with him, to see all the passion he had for life, and how he cared about other people. I went to his memorial on Oct. 11th, and I'd estimate there were over 300 people there mourning him. So many other "kids" along with his entire school had been there to celebrate his life. He believed in so many things, and actually acted on them, which is what a lot of us never do. He volunteered to keep kids off the streets. He actually cared. he touched so many people, and for you to be so ignorant as to say the things you have makes me lose a little of my faith in the kindness of humanity. Many, many people will miss Austin, as will I. Haley, I know I've never met you before, but I know that if I could, I would give you a big hug, because even though i can't quite understand what you're going through, I can help you make it though it. He'll always be in our hearts. <3

• October 20, 2008

  6:39 p.m.

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  SSOD writes:

  To read any negative comments about Austin really hurts. He was a brilliant young man, and a great friend to all who knew him: whether they met him once or hung out with him every day. He had a great impact on my life, and to hear anyone speak out against him makes me unbelievably sad. What happened was terrible, and any death should be treated with respect.

  To the Ayers family, I offer my deepest condolences and knowledge that, though I've never met any of you personally, I knew Austin freshman year at RV, and spent two years keeping his values and words in mind. Austin left a great imprint on my life, and I treasure his memory. <33

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