A small Kansas town is mourning this week after 17-year-old Dylan Higgins, a high school football player from the Wamego area, was killed in a UTV crash early Saturday morning. According to Pottawatomie County Sheriff Doug Adams, the vehicle’s 18-year-old driver lost control while attempting a turn around 12:50 a.m., ejecting Higgins, who was pronounced dead at the scene. A 16-year-old girl in the vehicle suffered minor injuries and was not hospitalized. The crash remains under investigation.
Higgins’ football program remembered him in a statement as “one of our own,” calling him “a teammate, brother, son and friend.” That kind of loss ripples through a community, and it’s a reminder that the tight-knit way small towns and local teams show up for each other is one of the best things about places like ours here on the Suncoast.
For families in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties, this story carries a practical warning. UTVs and ATVs are common on rural properties, ranch land and back roads out toward Myakka, North Port and eastern Manatee County. Ejection is the leading cause of serious injury and death in these vehicles, and it happens most often during sharp turns, at night, and with young or inexperienced drivers behind the wheel. Seatbelts, helmets, speed control and limiting who drives are the habits that prevent the calls no family wants to get.
Do your kids ride UTVs or ATVs? What safety rules does your family follow? Let us know in the comments.
