BY AMY HIGGINS and SUE KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HANOVER TOWNSHIP -- Devin Carr's school bus was only moments away. But as the 11-year-old waited in his driveway off a foggy Minton Road on Thursday, a white Ford pickup truck veered off the road and struck the boy, severely injuring him.
Devin, whose teen-age brother apparently witnessed the 6:30 a.m. accident, suffered a broken neck and pelvis. He was in a coma and listed in critical condition Thursday afternoon at Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Police said the truck, driven by Leaton D. Isaacs, 33, of 828 Millville-Oxford Road, was eastbound on Minton Road and passing another car on the double yellow line. Mr. Isaacs went off the left side of the road, where Devin was standing.
Leroy and Jane Baker, neighbors across the street, said Devin's parents, David and Deanna Carr, moved their family from Greenhills to Minton Road so their three boys would have more room to play, and a better chance at a safer childhood.
"They're just great kids, they're just a great family," Mr. Baker said.
But ever since Minton Road, just north of the town of Millville, was repaired and repaved, drivers have disregarded the 35 mph speed limit signs and no-passing zones, the Bakers said.
"It was a mistake to make it so wonderful," Jane Baker said. "When the road wasn't quite this nice, people didn't travel so fast."
Mr. Baker said Devin's older brother was waiting in his car, ready to drive to high school as soon as Devin got on the bus. Mr. Baker said the teen told him he saw Mr. Isaacs' pickup crest the hill west of the family's house, clearly going over the speed limit.
Police would not comment on the speed of the truck.
Mr. Baker said Mr. Isaacs' 1987 Ford pickup was dented in the front left fender. "For him to dent a metal truck, it was a pretty hard licking," Mr. Baker said.
Mr. Isaacs, contacted at his home Thursday afternoon, declined to comment. Police said charges against him are pending.
Shortly after the accident, the school bus that should have taken Devin to the sixth grade at Talawanda Middle School pulled into the school parking lot. And school officials were ready.
As the children got off the bus they were gathered together to talk about the accident, said Charley Wittenberg, assistant principal at the 877-pupil building.
"The accident happened moments before Devin was to be picked up," Mr. Wittenberg said. "The bus driver was very alert and called us so we could make preparations. It was so foggy that we don't think the students saw much."
Although school officials didn't make any formal announcements about the accident, most first period teachers talked with their classes about it, Mr. Wittenberg said.
During lunch periods, many students made cards and letters that were later taken to the hospital, Mr. Wittenberg said.
The accident was the second in the past week involving Butler County schoolchildren. On Oct. 22, four teen-age girls, including three sisters, and an older couple were injured in a head-on crash on U.S. 127 in Wayne Township.
Fontaine and Sabrina Selby and Markita Bales, all students at Edgewood High School, remained hospitalized Thursday in serious condition. Savannah Selby was released from the hospital Thursday. James Johnston and his wife, Louetta, who were in the other vehicle, have been released from the hospital.
