Motorcyclist pleads guilty in Edina crash for hitting boy getting off bus
EDINA, Minn. (FOX 9) - A motorcyclist accused of speeding through a bus stop arm and hitting a 10-year-old boy in Edina has agreed to plead guilty, court documents filed on Tuesday show.
The plea deal means the 19-year-old motorcyclist, Terrence Jacquise Mather-Lymon, will stay out on probation and in a county workhouse. He will likely only see prison if he violates his agreement.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 14, court records show.
Mather-Lymon was charged in April with one count of criminal vehicular operation in connection to the April 11 crash that injured the boy.
According to the criminal complaint, Edina police responded to the incident near the intersection of 55th Street West and Xerxes Avenue South in Edina at 2:44 p.m., when where officers saw a crowd of people gathered around the hurt boy.
The school bus was parked across the street with its stop arm fully extended, charges said.
Witnesses said they saw the boy get off the bus and walk onto the marked crosswalk, the complaint said. Then a motorcyclist, traveling at a high rate of speed, hit the boy on the crosswalk. Witnesses told police the motorcyclist was initially stopped in southbound traffic, with several cars between him and the school bus, but Mather-Lymon maneuvered into the northbound lane of traffic to pass the cars and bus prior to hitting the victim.
The impact caused the boy to fly through the air and land on the pavement, charges allege, with video from the bus showing the victim being struck and being "pushed or thrown approximately 30 feet."
The child was awake and made eye contact with emergency personnel, with court documents stating he suffered abrasions to his head and a "visible leg fracture" that required surgery, though his injuries are believed to be non-critical.
The bus driver said he had activated all the warning lights and stop arm of the bus, and he saw cars parked behind him waiting for him to complete the stop, charges said. He saw two children run across the street in front of the bus, but he didn’t see the motorcycle until it was passing the bus. The bus driver estimated the motorcyclist was going about 35 miles per hour.
Mather-Lymon, who stayed at the scene, told police he was riding a motorcycle for the first time that day and didn’t have a license, the complaint states.
He said he saw both the stopped school bus and the stop arm, noting there were multiple cars between him and the bus, charges said. Though he claimed he saw the bus driver extend his arm out of the window and interpreted it as he could pass the stopped bus.
Mather-Lymon estimated he was going about 15-20 mph when he hit the child, the complaint said. In a later statement to police, Mather-Lymon admitted he shouldn’t have driven around the stopped cars.
Mather-Lymon will make his first court appearance on Thursday in Hennepin County District Court.