Ohio driver Ricky A. Raider arrested in fatal crash that killed student Lauren Collins

A year-old jailhouse phone call was used to link an Ohio man to a deadly crash on a Kentucky highway in which an 18-year-old college student was killed by the man’s tire falling off his truck.

Ricky A. Raider was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month in the freak accident that killed University of Kentucky student Lauren Collins, according to the Boone County Sheriff’s Office announced on June 21.

Collins, a rising sophomore and fashion merchandising major, was driving south on the highway near the Ohio border when the runaway tire struck her car around 12:15 p.m. on July 16, 2023.

Raider was heading north when the tire reportedly broke off his truck and rolled over the concrete barrier, hitting the windshield of Collins’ white 2012 Buick LaCrosse.

Emergency workers removed Collins from her car and then took her to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

Collins, the sole occupant of her car, died at the hospital.

Six days after the fatal crash, Raider, 37, turned himself in to Independence police, admitting that “he lost a tire on the highway over the weekend, but did not believe his tire hit anyone.”

Months later, Sergeant Jeff Nagy of the department’s Accident Reconstruction Unit obtained a recording of a phone recording Raider had with a female inmate at the Bullitt County Detention Center, 107 miles (173 kilometers) southwest of the Independence Police Department.

The call to the jail took place the night Collins was killed.

During his interview, Raider allegedly admitted that he was driving north in his 1993 Ford F-250 when a tire came off his truck.

Raider told the female caller he saw the tire hit Collins’ car and “knew the impact likely resulted in someone being injured or killed,” the sheriff’s office said.

After seeing the crash, Raider allegedly remounted the tire and fled the scene.

“What he did was steal lug nuts off of other wheels to put that tire on, just to get him on the road and off the highway,” Maj. Philip Ridgell of the Boone County Sheriff’s Office told WXIX.

Raider was arrested and charged with one count of leaving the scene of an accident/failure to render aid causing death or serious bodily injury, a class D misdemeanor, and one count of continuing misdemeanor first offense.

He was booked into the Boone County Detention Center and is being held on a $40,000 cash bond.

Raider appeared in court Wednesday and asked a public defender to represent him. He is due back in court on July 24, the outlet reported.