Lawyer for injured girl’s family calls for serious charges against Britt Reid on ‘GMA’
The attorney for the family of a 5-year-old girl injured in a crash involving former Chiefs assistant linebackers coach Britt Reid told “Good Morning America” on Tuesday that the girl was still in the hospital with a brain injury and unable to speak.
“This wasn’t a fender bender,” Tom Porto, the attorney for the family, said on “Good Morning America.” “This was a serious life-altering event.”
According to a GoFundMe set up by the girl’s family, the child, Ariel Young, had swelling and bleeding in and around her brain, leaving her hospitalized in critical condition. Family reported that on Feb. 16, after 11 days in a coma, she had woken up.
The crash happened three days before the Super Bowl, and involved Reid, the Chiefs’ former linebackers coach and son of head coach Andy Reid, who hit two cars on the side of an entrance ramp along Interstate 435, near the team’s practice facility. Reid admitted to drinking before the crash, according to court documents.
“I wish I could come bearing good news about this horrible situation,” Porto said in a statement provided to The Star following the “GMA” interview. “Unfortunately, I cannot. Baby Ariel is awake but that’s it. She is not talking or walking and will likely have permanent brain damage. It’s just a sad sad story.”
The Tuesday morning segment ran a series of photos of the vehicles involved in the crash.
“Very hard to see some of the images,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted Tuesday. “I continue to pray for Ariel and her family.”
The photos show the crushed backseat of the vehicle where Ariel had been sitting.
“When you look at those pictures, you wonder how anybody made it out of that car alive,” Porto said.
Porto said he and the family will advocate for “the most serious charges and the most serious sentence that Britt could ever receive.”
“We don’t have the toxicology back, I don’t know what it is going to be,” he told “GMA.” “What I do know are the statements that he made to police that night. If you have two or three drinks, and then you get behind the wheel of a car, you are likely over the legal limit.”
A heavily redacted police report released Feb. 23 mirrored information police have already released on the crash. It stated that a truck driven by Reid struck two vehicles on Interstate 435 near mile marker 64.2. That location is just south of the southbound entrance ramp from Stadium Drive, where the speed limit is 65 mph, according to the report.
The crash occurred after a gray 2009 Chevy Impala ran out of gas on I-435 just south of the ramp. The driver called relatives, who responded to help and parked their vehicle, a 2009 Chevy Traverse, in front of the Impala, according to the report.
The report indicates that the two vehicles were “stopped in traffic (not parked).” Police previously said that the Impala’s flashers initially were on, but the battery was dying.
Reid, who was driving a 2020 Ram pickup truck, sideswiped the Impala, traveled forward a short distance and struck the rear of the Traverse, according to the report.
According to a search warrant application obtained by The Star, a KCPD officer noted “a moderate odor of alcoholic beverages emanating from (Reid)” and noted that Reid’s eyes were “bloodshot and red.” Reid allegedly told police he’d consumed “two to three drinks.”
Reid also told the officer that he had a prescription for Adderall, according to an application for a search warrant. The drug is commonly used to treat persons with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
In the report, under the section for probable contributing circumstance on the crash report, police did not check alcohol or drugs, although another box for “Other” was checked. Elsewhere in the report, under the section for “Alcohol use,” police had checked unknown, indicating that “alcohol use on the part of the driver/operator is unknown.”
Court documents showed that Kansas City police collected four vials of blood from Reid. The samples would be tested for blood alcohol content and the presence of any controlled substances.
Police previously have said that the driver of the Traverse and an adult passenger in the front seat were not injured in the collision. The children were in the seats behind the front seat. One was wearing a lap and shoulder belt, and it was unknown what safety device was used for the other, according to the report.
Previously, in 2008, Reid pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a controlled substance in the Philadelphia area.
The Chiefs placed Reid on administrative leave the week after the crash, but his contract has since expired and not been renewed, ending his employment with the organization, a source told The Star. The Chiefs have not publicly commented on the contract not being renewed. They put out a statement saying they are gathering information and assisting local authorities.
“Our focus remains on (the girl) and her family,” the statement read. “We have reached out to the family to offer our support and resources to them during this difficult time, and we will continue to pray for her recovery.’‘
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Ariel’s 4-year-old cousin also suffered a broken nose and concussion in the crash, family said.
The younger girl “is traumatized but now at home resting and healing from her injuries,” according to the fundraising page, launched shortly after the crash to help pay for the girl’s hospital bills and to compensate for the time away from work for her mother, who parents three young children.
As of 7 a.m. Tuesday, more than 13,100 people had contributed a combined $517,185 to the GoFundMe.
“Ariel, while she is awake she is not the same happy free spirited little girl she was before this horrific crash,” GoFundMe organizer and family member, Tiffany Verhulst, wrote on the fundraising page. “She has a long road to recovery and the things that were once easy for her will no longer be. We are so happy she is awake yet so sad at the toll this took on her body and brain.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
