Idaho mom was 120 days sober. Then, police say, 14-year-old driver hit her bike

Before an SUV struck her on the Fourth of July, Kellei Bunn’s life was finally going well, her family said.

She was 120 days sober and living in a Nampa sobriety house after struggling with meth addiction. She had just been offered a full-time job as a horse trainer, and it looked like she might be able to regain custody of her 8-year-old daughter, her parents said.

Then, while riding her bike after attending the fireworks show in Melba, an SUV driven by a 14-year-old boy hit her around 10:45 p.m. on Southside Boulevard, near the Melba Road intersection in Melba, Canyon County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Joe Decker told the Idaho Statesman.

For that teenage suspect, the crash may prove life-altering; Decker said in an email that he could face criminal charges.

For Kellei, 34, the crash may be life-ending; over the last week, she’s been in a coma in a Portland hospital and her family has been playing a “waiting game,” said her father, Randy Bunn. Her injuries are so severe that she is unlikely to survive, he said.

Kellei placed in a coma, flown to Portland

On July 5, the Bunns were camping in McCall and didn’t have cellphone service, Randy said. They ran out of ice and went to town to get more. That was when they discovered the phone messages. One was from the mother of a friend who was with Kellei at the time of the crash, telling them to call her. Another was from a Portland doctor asking for permission to operate on her aorta.

Kellei had been revived at the accident scene and flown to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, her father said. Physicians put her in a medically induced coma, but they didn’t have the right surgeons, so they had her flown to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland.

The accident interrupted the progress she’d been making, Randy said.

“She was just like her old self again. She was (an) absolute beautiful girl before the meth, and part of that beauty had begun to return,” he said, his voice shaking. “You could see it. So we were hopeful that she’d get herself together, and get a job, and have housing, and be able to get her little girl back. But it doesn’t look like that’s very likely now.”

Kellei had been offered a full-time job training horses the day before the crash, her mother, Linda Bunn, told the Statesman. She’d had “a special bond” with horses since she was little, her mother said.

She also loved the fireworks show in Melba, which she attended every year. It was “one of her favorite things to do,” Linda said.

She’s been with her daughter in Portland since the morning of July 7, she said. Her husband stayed at home in Nampa with Kellei’s daughter, Aleiah, who lives with them.

The last week “has been surreal,” Randy said. “It’s like you just think it’s not really happening. But it is.”

He’s thought about the 14-year-old who allegedly caused the crash. “There needs to be some punishment,” he said, “but I’m sure his life is forever changed, as is ours.” He said his family will likely file a lawsuit.

Under Idaho law, a 14-year-old may legally drive if they obtain a driver training or supervised instruction permit and their parents accept liability for their actions on the road. A driver younger than 16 may operate a vehicle only during daylight hours, unless they have a licensed driver 21 or older in the front passenger seat next to them.

Decker declined to answer questions about whether the suspect in the crash was driving legally or was with an adult. He also declined to confirm that the incident was a hit and run, as Kellei’s family has described it.

Randy said his understanding, from a conversation his wife had with the sheriff’s office, is that the driver’s passengers were two 14-year-old boys.

If that’s accurate, said Barbara Banz, a Yale School of Medicine professor who studies teen drivers, the crash encapsulates some of the riskiest teenage driving scenarios. Peers can act as a distraction and driving at night increases accident rates, she told the Statesman in a phone interview. Only about 10 states allow 14-year-olds to drive, she said.

Family describes extensive injuries, slow progress

In Portland, hundreds of miles away from her family, Kellei’s mother sat with her daughter from about 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day and tried to coax her into responding and waking up from her coma, she said.

She said she’d talk to her daughter and say things like “Hey, Kellei, can you wake up, honey? Can you just look at me? Can you squeeze my fingers?” At night, she’d tell her: “You have a good night’s rest so tomorrow you can wake up.”

But she didn’t get any response, she said.

At one point, though, she played a couple of short videos of lessons from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Kellei moved her arms a little. That was a good sign, doctors said, but Kellei could have also just been responding to pain, Linda said.

Her injuries are extensive. Besides an aortic tear, which doctors fixed, she has a ruptured spleen, liver damage, brain bleed, broken ribs, broken left arm and broken left leg, said her sister, Amanda Stocking, who organized a GoFundMe page to cover medical expenses and her family’s travel to Portland.

When the hospital started to wean her from the medicine keeping her unconscious, she didn’t wake up, Stocking said.

Doctors delayed an MRI because of metal that was supporting her leg. Once they did one, it showed that the damage to her brain was too extensive for her to survive, Randy said Wednesday. “We expect her to pass,” he said.

But on Thursday, Kellei finally woke up. She moved her eyes, looked around the hospital room and wiggled her fingers, Randy said. When a nurse asked questions, she nodded her head.

That was the most responsive she’s been, but a neurosurgeon told the family that’s all the progress she may ever make, Randy said. Kellei had told her parents that she didn’t want to be kept alive if something like this crash happened to her, and they plan to respect her wishes.

“We’re religious people,” he said, crying a little. “We don’t think this is all there is.”

Aleiah’s father was fatally stabbed when she was a baby, Randy said, so if her mother dies too, she will be orphaned. Randy prays that God will let him live long enough to raise her, he said.

He and Aleiah planned to drive to Portland on Friday. That morning, they had their bags packed and sitting next to the front door in their living room, which is decorated with images of Christ and a photo of the Meridian Latter-day Saints temple.

The night before, he showed Aleiah photos of her mother that a hospital social worker sent so Aleiah would understand her condition. She’s perceptive, Randy said, but the 8-year-old still doesn’t seem to fully grasp the situation.

“(We’re) going up to see her and say goodbye,” Randy said.

“Say goodbye why?” Aleiah asked indignantly.