NKY man accused of accelerating car as others sat on it, critically injuring 19-year-old
An Elsmere man is accused of accelerating a car while two others were on top of it, sending a 19-year-old man to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to the Boone County Sheriff's Office.
Dylan Brinkman, 21, of Elsmere, is facing a single count of first-degree assault, officials said. Deputies, with assistance from the Elsmere Police Department, arrested Brinkman at his home Friday afternoon.
The sheriff's office said deputies were dispatched around 1:18 a.m. on March 31 to Big Bone Lick State Park for a report of an unconscious person who was seriously hurt. They learned 19-year-old Sean Smith, of Florence, had fallen off a car and sustained a life-threatening head injury.
Smith was taken via helicopter to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition, the sheriff's office said in Friday news release.
Officials said an investigation revealed Smith and another man were driven to the park in a white Chevrolet Camaro by Brinkman. The three men met up with two others who arrived in a separate vehicle, the sheriff's office said.
After Brinkman parked the car, Smith and the other man got out of the Camaro and placed themselves on top of it, with Smith sitting on the trunk, officials said, adding Brinkman then pulled out of the parking lot and accelerated the car down Mastodon Trail.
The acceleration caused Smith to fall from the car and onto the pavement, the sheriff's office said.
The other man, who was on the Camaro's hood but didn't fall off, "immediately ran to Smith's aid and observed the seriousness of his head injury," the release states. He asked the others to call 911, officials said, though Brinkman and another member of the group left the park and did not return.
The group, including Brinkman and Smith, were drinking alcohol earlier in the night, the sheriff's office said, adding Brinkman told detectives he knew Smith was intoxicated and admitted the same about himself.
In his interview with investigators, Brinkman claimed the car was traveling under 15 mph while Smith and the other man were affixed to it, the sheriff's office said.
Brinkman is currently being held at the Kenton County Detention Center on a $100,000 cash bond.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NKY man charged after 19-year-old critically injured in fall off car
