A Tennessee teenager lost his life over the weekend after he was crushed by a forklift that he was using to spin donuts in, according to reports from local authorities.
The teen, 15-year-old Jaden Dalton, was operating the machine at an equipment rental business in Nashville when it overturned and killed him, the Nashville Police Department reported.
Dalton and a friend had allegedly found a way to start the engine on one of the machines on the lot, and the pair began operating it, police said. Police have ruled his death an accident.
Cristol Quintana, Dalton's older sister, was among the first people on the scene, WTVF reported.
"[They] went back outside to play, and about an hour later, they just came and run in the house saying, 'He's not breathing, he's dead, he's gone.' And I ran down there," Quintana told WTVF. "I tried to lift up the machine. I couldn't even lift it. He was gone."
Dalton was a freshman in high school in the Metro Nashville Public School District. On Monday, the district released a statement regarding his death.
"Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Jaden Dalton, a 9th-grade student at Maplewood High who tragically lost his life in an accident yesterday," the school district said. "Our support team has been working with the school to provide grief counseling as they mourn the loss of their classmate."
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As for how the boys got into the store, his family thinks the pair jumped over a barricade, WSMV reported.
It is also unknown how the two boys could get the forklift to turn on, but some of Dalton's family shared with WTVF that the keys were left in the ignition.
Members of Dalton's family shared their reactions to his death with local news agencies. His aunt Latonya Dalton shared that he was "trying to actually jump out of the machine" when it fell on him, WKRN reported.
"It's hard out here on these streets, these kids, they don't have nothing else better to do," she told WKRN. "As you can see, they'll find something to do if they don't have nothing to do out here."
His mother, Latasha Dalton, told WSMV that when she heard what had happened, she "broke down in tears."
"It was too hard to swallow," Dalton said. "People are (driving by) honking today, saying sorry for your loss, but that ain't bringing him back. I mean, he was a good child, and I mean everybody loved him."
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