GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County mother is in jail for murder because police say she was responsible for her teenage son’s deadly dirt bike crash.
Noah Geiger, 14, was on his dirt bike last week at night when a car hit him as he crossed six lanes of traffic on Lawrenceville Highway, according to Gwinnett County Police. He died three hours later at a local hospital.
“When I arrived the car was in flames that hit my son,” said Benjamin Geiger, Noah’s father. “When he got hit, he got airborne and hit the ground.”
The sight of his son’s mangled dirt bike on the road still haunts Geiger. On top of the tragedy, he struggles to understand why Noah’s mother is in jail charged with second-degree murder.
“I don’t like the situation at all and she shouldn’t be there,” he said to Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson.
It was around 11:50 p.m. on September 9 when Noah and his older brother rode their dirt bikes to a nearby gas station on Lawrenceville Highway near Patterson Road to get air in their tires.
Their mother, Amanda Geiger, followed them in her car because there were no headlights on the dirt bikes.
“They were crossing the road and my wife was using her lights so they could see crossing the road,” Benjamin said.
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On the way back, Gwinnett County Police say a car hit Noah while he was on his dirt bike and crossing six lanes of traffic.
“My wife was actually sitting in the Chevron and my two boys crossed the road, one made it to the other side, but the youngest didn’t have time to make it,” he said.
Noah died at a hospital three hours later just after three in the morning.
Amanda Geiger was arrested shortly before his death for child cruelty. After Noah’s passing, charges were upgraded to second-degree murder.
An arrest warrant accuses his mother of “allowing” her son to “operate an unregistered dirt bike with “no exterior lighting” across six lanes. The warrant states that the dirt bikes are not intended for highway use and the area was not well-lit at the time of the crash.
Geiger says he doesn’t believe his wife would ever put their kids in danger. He spoke to her from jail over the phone for the first time on Thursday.
“She’s sad,” the father said. “She hates every day of it but all we can do is do the best we can from here on out.”
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Now he is hoping she can be released with a bond to help plan their son’s funeral together.
“If we were upset about something, he made a joke, made us smile, a joyful kid,” he said.
The tragedy and the arrest has taken a toll on Benjamin and his surviving son. He has started an online fundraiser to help raise funds as they recover.
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