ATV crash injures teen

A 17-year-old boy was in Medical Center Hospital with severe head injuries after having an ATV accident Saturday morning in Brewster County, sheriff Ronny Dodson said.

Dodson said the boy, whose name he was withholding until he can contact his parents, was left lying unconscious on the rocks near his four-wheeler for about an hour and a half at a ranch about 45 miles south of Marathon.

“He was in a pretty bad shape. We couldn’t even put him on the helicopter because of his condition,” Dodson said.

Dodson said the teen from Cuero was visiting his uncle and was heading up a mountain alone on an ATV, likely to use his cell phone near the top of the mountain since it’s one of the few in the area with a tower. His family became concerned when he hadn’t come back and began searching the ranch for him when they found his unresponsive body on the ground.

A call by satellite came in at 10:05 a.m. Dodson said the ranch’s owner picked up the teen and drove him off the ranch to a highway where an ambulance picked him up. From there paramedics took the teen to Marathon before his pulse strengthened and he was stable enough to be taken by helicopter to Odessa.