CHELSEA — A 23-year-old Vermont man is facing criminal charges stemming from a fatal head-on collision in Orange, Vt., last October.
Police cited Kyle Hunt, of Washington, Vt., to appear in Orange Superior Court in Chelsea on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 8:30 a.m. on felony charges of gross negligent operation – death resulting and obstruction of justice, Vermont State Police announced in a Saturday news release.
Efforts to reach Hunt on Monday were not immediately successful.
Sixteen-year-old Kaylee Bailey died, after a Subaru Crosstrek, driven by Hunt, turned in front of her Kawasaki dirt bike on Richardson Road in Orange on Oct. 5, the Valley News reported in October.
Hunt was driving west on Richardson Road when he turned south in front of Kaylee’s dirt bike, which she was driving east on Richardson Road.
Kaylee, her boyfriend Kevin Buick and her best friend Jakob Spencer were riding dirt bikes on a familiar route at around 5 p.m.
When the group of teens came to the intersection of Emery Road, Jakob told the Valley News he could see Hunt’s Subaru Crosstrek approach from the opposite direction.
After the car and Bailey’s dirt bike collided, Jakob called family for help and attempted to give Kaylee CPR, he said.
About 10 minutes after the teens left Buick’s house, first responders arrived and found Bailey unresponsive near the intersection of Emery Road.
She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Hunt was uninjured in the collision.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Kaylee’s mother, Heather Bailey, said by phone on Monday. “But I didn’t give up.”
Since the crash, Bailey said she called state police “pretty much every day” about the investigation into her daughter’s death, only to hear over and over that no new information was available.
Just as often as she called, she visited her daughter’s memorial at the intersection of Richardson and Emery roads.
“I know she’s gone,” she said. “But some days I put in my head that she’s still here and I just think she’s at Kevin’s and I just haven’t heard from her yet today.”
Last weekend, she got a call. It was state police calling to let her know that charges were being brought against Hunt.
“I was frustrated,” she said about the call. “They didn’t even put (Hunt) in jail. I’m frustrated that they did not arrest him and that they only cited him to (appear) in court.”
She plans on attending Hunt’s arraignment next Wednesday, with a few other family members and friends, wearing shirts and holding signs that read the same: “Justice for Kaylee.”
