SPANISH SPRINGS, NV - A 12-year-old Spanish Springs boy is hospitalized with serious injuries suffered when he fell while catching a tow on his bike by grabbing his mother's pickup truck.

The young boy and his friend had just competed and done well in a BMX competition in Sun Valley. They were riding home on Rockwell Drive in Spanish Springs, still on their bikes, the boy's mother driving the family pickup.
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"They were just boys being boys, very excited," says the other boy's mother, Theresa Skillen. "Nick rode up beside his mom and grabbed the side of the vehicle.

The boy either lost his balance or his bike struck the pickup's rear tire. He fell to the pavement striking his head.

Spanish Springs resident Barry White was in his front yard.

"I heard the crash and I heard the mom get out of the car and she was screaming for help," says White. "I ran in and grabbed my phone and called 9-1-1. I ran across the street as I was talking to the dispatcher."

He found a badly injured boy and a distraught mother.

"I was the first to get here and trying to help her and her son, holding him down because he was flailing about quite violently."

Initial information indicated the boy had grabbed the truck with his mother's permission. Skiller says her son, who was there, says that isn't true.

Besides Skiller says "she's a good mother and a good person and she'd never want anything to happen to Nick."

The accident is still under investigation. One detail already stands out. Although both boys had just been in a competition where helmets are required, neither was wearing one as they rode home.

"If he'd been wearing a helmet he'd had substantial protection," says White. "So, wear your helmet kids."

Helmets, in fact, are not required in Nevada, though they are advised. So, is not catching a tow, though sheriff's spokesman Deputy Armando Avina says their office sees it all the time.

"This is a wake up call."