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The family of 13-year-old Marcus Ragland Jr. said he protected his younger brother in the crash. Seven siblings and two adults were in the ATV.
ROME, Ga. — Two Rome, Georgia, parents were killed and seven children were hospitalized after an ATV crash at Indian Mountain ATV Park in Alabama.
Cherokee County Coroner Paul McDonald identified the adults killed as Marcus Ragland and Ashley Hawkins.
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said nine people were riding in a side-by-side RZR at the park Saturday when it collided with another ATV, overturned and struck a tree.
Thirteen-year-old Marcus Ragland Jr., known as MJ, was flown to Birmingham, where he remains in the ICU.
“He’s still in the ICU. He’s doing well. His whole side of his face is like a cracked egg. So, his whole eye is swollen shut.,” MJ’s mother, Destiny Huggins, said.
MJ’s stepfather, Jacquan Brock, said the teenager tried to protect his younger brother during the crash.
“MJ risked his life to save his little brother. His little brother was not in a seat belt at all. And when they crashed, MJ wrapped his arm around his little brother and covered up his face,” Brock said.
Huggins said only two of the children were wearing seatbelts.
“Since it was a situation that I couldn’t control that I should have been able to depend on these businesses to make sure that the place that they was letting my child into was safe,” she said.
Huggins shared what her son Gabriel told her about the crash.
“They was going pretty fast, they was going up a hill from what Gabriel tells me. You have to push the guest hard to go up the hill. When they come up the hill and you know it goes down because it’s a mountain, there was another ATV right there and Marcus tried to miss it. And he clipped it. When he clipped it, it knocked him off the cliff. He hit the tree or he hit the tree,” she said.
First responders were delayed getting to the crash site due to its remoteness.
She and Brock want more safety measures put in place at the park.
As MJ continues his recovery, Huggins said the family has been leaning on community support.
“Any support, even if it’s a prayer. As soon as I started asking for prayers, he started getting better,” she said.
An online campaign has been created to help with MJ’s medical expenses.
