UPDATE: 1:54 p.m. Friday – A boy injured after stealing a van and wrecking it has been treated and released from the hospital. His injuries were minor.
Harley A. Osborne, who is 10, left the emergency room at Wesley Medical Center Thursday, according to a spokesperson. He was flown to Wichita by air ambulance.
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A Dexter student was injured Thursday morning after he left school and wrecked a van he’d stolen from a local residence, Cowley County Sheriff Don Read said.
The accident occurred around 8 a.m on the outskirts of town, across the highway from the Dexter Mini Mart. Authorities have yet to release the name of the nine-year-old student but said he was flown to a Wichita hospital after complaining of pain in his abdomen and chest.
Sheriff’s deputies first responded to a report of a rollover accident but arrived to find a 2007 Dodge Caravan had entered a ditch and hit a culvert. The boy told police he’d gone home sick from school and had taken the van from a residence on Main.
Read said an investigation determined the boy arrived at school between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. to eat breakfast but left after deciding not to eat. School staff was unaware the boy had left because class had not started for the day.
The boy went to the home of Nicole Lette’, got into the car and found a key. The boy drove toward K-15 Highway and began driving south and entered a ditch just past the mini mart. He was able to get out of the ditch briefly, entered a vacant lot and made a u-turn.
The van pulled back onto the highway, went into the ditch again and hit a culvert.
Family of Lette’ said the woman has had the van less than six months. The child was not wearing a seat belt and the air bag deployed.
A 9-year-old cannot face criminal charges but a child in need of care case is being filed.
