Thirteen-year-old Reno boy dies in Geiger Grade accident

A 13-year-old Reno boy was killed late Tuesday evening as he and a friend rode their skateboards to 7-Eleven for a snack.

Rory Dean Jr. died about 11:10 p.m. when he was struck near Toll Road on Geiger Grade by a Jeep Cherokee driven by 59-year-old Joann Fate of the Virginia City Highlands.

Trooper Chuck Allen of the Nevada Highway Patrol said the two 13-year-olds were westbound on the unlit, shoulderless stretch of roadway when the right front fender of the vehicle hit Rory.

Fate told investigators her attention was drawn to the other teenager and she was keeping an eye on him to see if he was going to cross when she heard a noise and realized she'd hit something.

Fate stopped near the other boy.

"She asked the boy if she hit something, and the boy replied, 'Yes, it was my friend," said Trooper Harvey Brown.

He said when the two looked up the street, they could see only the child's hat lying in the roadway near his broken skateboard.

After retrieving a flashlight from the convenience store, they found Rory lying in a ditch, Allen said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Allen said Rory didn't likely hear the vehicle approaching because of the noise of the skateboard, but Brown said the other boy saw the vehicle coming and tried to yell to his friend just as the vehicle struck him.

"It was instantaneous," Brown said.

Fate voluntarily submitted a blood sample, but investigators don't believe drugs or alcohol contributed to the accident.

The accident occurred near the site where a newlywed couple was struck by a truck in August 2003. Kelly and Darin Berry, a Storey County firefighter, were walking along Toll Road when they were hit from behind, killing her and seriously injuring him.