Hannibal fatal DWI: a driver’s wild dash and a rescue effort to save students; ‘Hang on, man’

Hannibal, N.Y. — Kelley and John O’Hora awoke early Saturday morning after a loud crash that sounded almost like a gunshot. A boy was screaming.

The couple rushed outside to find a horrific scene in their front yard on state Route 176, a two-lane rural road in Oswego County.

They saw a girl’s body at the end of the driveway. Several feet away, they found a badly injured boy.

“Hang on, man,” Kelley O’Hora remembers her husband telling the boy.

Another boy was crying and screaming that someone had just hit his friends.

That was the scene at 12:30 a.m. Saturday after, state police say, a drunken driver, Christopher J. Rogers II, drove onto the shoulder of the road where three teens were walking.

Rogers’ white Dodge Ram pickup truck struck and killed Kaydence Nichols, 16, and critically injured Riley Trumble, 17, police said.

Rogers never stopped, police said.

Rogers was spotted miles away in Cayuga County, then he drove back by the scene 45 minutes later, police said. People there recognized his damaged, bloodied truck driving by and police chased after him, catching him a few miles down the road, police said.

Rogers, 29, of Granby, was charged with second-degree vehicular manslaughter and other crimes.

Rogers also was charged in August 2019 with DWI after being stopped on Oswego Road in Clay. He pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of DWAI, was sent to a program for drunken drivers and was ordered to pay a fine, court records show.

On Friday night, the two Hannibal High School students were hanging out with a small group of friends. Kaydence and Riley decided to go for a walk and Dakota Roehm, 17, joined them.

The three teens were facing traffic when the pickup swerved toward them onto the shoulder of the road, hitting two of the three teens, police said.

Pieces of the pickup truck and cell phones were later found in a ditch about 100 yards from the driveway where the teens were found.

Outside, John O’Hora ran over to Riley and tried to comfort him. He ran inside and grabbed a blanket, which he wrapped around Riley. Another couple who lives nearby came over to help.

There was nothing they could do for Kaydence, Kelley O’Hora said.

Dakota had called 911 but he was so distraught that a neighbor, a former EMT, took over the 911 call, Kelley O’Hora said.

“We brought Dakota inside,” she said. “He was crying.”

Riley was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse with extensive injuries, including a severed aorta, broken pelvis, ruptured spleen, two broken legs, and injuries to his lung, kidney and bladder, according to a family friend. He has undergone a couple of surgeries already and more are planned.

As state police interviewed witnesses and gathered evidence, a 911 call came in to report a possibly drunk man in a damaged white pickup at the Cato MX Park, an off-road race track.

“We heard a vehicle coming down the road. … All of a sudden he blew past the gate to get in,” said Jackie Turner, 32, of Palmyra, who was camping at the track. “We expected him to back up but he ran right through a chicken wire fence between a camper and tents.”

The driver, later identified by police as Rogers, traveled up the grass to the driveway in the park.

“He was going really fast through the pits up and down the roadways,” Turner said.

Turner said her husband and a friend stopped the driver and asked him what he was doing. He sped off again, but then suddenly stopped by their campers in the grass.

The man appeared to be passed out in the truck but then he started yelling, shouting a name and flailing his arms, she said. He yelled he wasn’t “f-ing sleepin’,” she said.

“I then went up to his window and talked in my mom voice asking if we could please have the keys. We would keep him there safe till he could drive again,” she said.

The man suddenly drove off so fast that he fish-tailed, Turner said. “I don’t know how he made it, but he did,” she said.

Rogers headed back toward the crash scene on state Route 176, police said.

“He went right back through the same scene,” said Trooper Jack Keller, a spokesman for the state police. “Someone said, ‘Hey, that’s the truck.’” The truck, he said, was bloodied and damaged.

State police chased Rogers’ pickup for about two miles. He finally stopped when he turned onto the street where he lives, Germandale Drive, in Granby, Keller said.

Troopers could see the pickup truck’s windshield was broken, a headlight was missing and there was blood on the side of the white truck, Keller said.

Rogers’s nose also was bleeding, but he refused treatment, Keller said. He also refused a Breathalyzer test.

Troopers charged Rogers with second-degree vehicular manslaughter, second-degree vehicular assault and leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident, all felonies, and driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor.

Rogers, who had been held at the Oswego County jail after his arrest, was released Monday by a court order, records show.

After they had him in custody Saturday, troopers showed up at the motocross park. Turner said her friend had called 911 to describe the drunken, bloodied man.

Turner said she got the South Carolina license plate number and gave it to police.

Investigators are still hoping to talk with anyone who saw Rogers out Friday night or early Saturday.

State police believe Rogers may have visited several bars before he hit the teens, Keller said.

State police also want to talk with the driver of a car caught on camera, driving past the fatal crash scene 14 seconds after Rogers hit the teens, Keller said. That driver is not in trouble but could still help police.

“The driver may not have even known (an accident had just happened),” Keller said.

Troopers have asked anyone with information to call (315) 366-6000.

Have a tip or a story idea? Contact Catie O’Toole: [email protected] | text/call 315-470-2134 | Twitter | Facebook