Mom of 9-year-old hit by truck talks about her recovery

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - A Lincoln child is recovering from being hit while on her bike this week by an off duty Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office employee.

The nine-year-old has spent the last couple of days in the hospital with serious head injuries.

Wednesday evening, Tiarrah Moton got a phone call a mom never wants to hear. She had just run around the block for an errand.

“Maybe less than five minutes and they called me and said that my daughter had been hit,” Moton said.

She rushed back to her home, in the Highlands area, and saw her daughter Janiece in an ambulance. Her bike was on the ground, bent out of shape.

“I just ran up the street,” Moton said. “And she’s just sitting on the back of the ambulance with my kids, all the other neighbor kids talking to the firefighter and she’s like, she’s not really crying. And I just think her like adrenaline was so high.”

According to the Lincoln Police Department’s accident report, Chief Deputy Ben Houchin was in his personal vehicle going about 20 miles per hour on West Jennifer Street. Houchin told police he looked down at his radio and as he looked up he hit a child on a bike.

Houchin said he didn’t see her and that she “came out of nowhere”.

Moton said Janiece has a brain bleed, skull fracture, and shoulder fractures, among other injuries. She said doctors are watching for the possibility of seizures because of how hard she hit her head.

“She has to be given a pretty strong dose of other medicines to be able to get the pain down,” Moton said. “Her pain has been pretty bad to where it’s causing her to shake.”

Janiece was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.

The report also shows alcohol was not suspected to be a factor in the crash.

Right now, no citation has been issued.

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said Houchin has not been placed on administrative leave.

“We have not been provided with any information to indicate that Chief Deputy Houchin violated any LSO policies during this incident,” Sheriff Terry Wagner said.

LPD said they are still investigating and they are looking for possible witnesses and gathering the same information they look for in all collisions resulting in serious injury.

Janiece is in the hospital taking recovery day by day.

“Just feeling helpless, that I can’t make my daughter feel better. I can’t,” Moton said. “The part that like, really breaks my heart is that she’s so bubbly and to see her just sad all the time, and just in pain,” Moton said. “It sucks because I’m the one that always makes my kids feel better. Like I’m always the one that puts a smile on their face. So it kills me that I can’t do it.”

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