WAYLAND, Mich. — A Michigan couple is preparing to bury their 5-year-old son after the boy was struck and killed by a Jimmy John’s delivery driver Friday evening, a news report said.
Blake Allan Huffman, of Wayland, was riding his bike in front of his family's home around 7:30 p.m. when he was struck by a driver delivering an order, according to WWMT in Kalamazoo. Wayland is just over 20 miles south of Grand Rapids in western Michigan.
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Investigators believe the boy rode his bike from the driveway into the road -- and into the path of the 33-year-old female driver, the news station reported.
Responding police officers attempted CPR on Blake, but the boy was pronounced dead at the scene. He was killed in front of his father, Jacob Huffman, and his two young sisters.
"It's tough when it's an adult, but it's even harder when it's a child," Wayland police Chief Steve Harper told WWMT. "The neighborhood suffers and the people that know him. It's not just the family, it's the rest of the community. Our hearts and prayers go out for them as they have to deal with this tragedy."
The boy's grandmother, Bonnie Smith, wrote a negative review of Jimmy John's on Yelp, where she castigated the company for it's slogan, "Freaky Fast Delivery."
"That is quite a slogan," Smith wrote. "Jimmy John's very own 33-year-old female delivery driver was driving so 'freakishly fast' in a rural housing community, where the posted speed limit is 15 mph, that she didn't see Blake riding his bike. My 5-year-old grandson was hit by the delivery driver and died on scene with his sister and daddy there with him.
“Your sub getting to your door step in 30 minutes or less is not worth my grandson's life.”
It was unclear Monday if the driver saw Blake on his bicycle or the speed at which she was driving at the time of the collision. Harper told WWMT on Saturday that it was too early in the investigation to say whether criminal charges would be filed.
J.P. Walters, the owner of the Wayland Jimmy John's franchise, said in a statement that the accident was "a terrible tragedy for everyone involved."
"Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the family of the victim," Walters said. "We are fully cooperating with the police as they investigate the incident."
Smith established a GoFundMe page to help her son and daughter-in-law pay for Blake's funeral.
"Thank you to everyone who has donated," she wrote on Facebook. "This will help tremendously, since they have no life insurance for Blake. I upped the amount so that he could possibly get a headstone."
As of Monday morning, the page had raised just over $7,200 of the $15,000 goal.
Cox Media Group
