The Kansas City Chiefs have suspended outside linebackers coach Britt Reid following a Thursday night car crash in which two children were injured.
The Chiefs organization announced the suspension on Tuesday and offered support to 5-year-old Ariel Young, who is reportedly hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, and her family. Reid, who did not appear on the sidelines during his team’s Sunday night appearance at the Super Bowl, is the son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.
“We remain in the process of gathering information on the incident, and we will continue to assist local authorities as requested,” the Chiefs said in a statement, according to ESPN. “Our focus remains on Ariel Young and her family. 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.”
After the crash, Britt Reid admitted to the police that he had been drinking and was taking Adderall, a medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to police documents. As NBC News reported:
Police have not publicly named Reid, but search warrant documents filed in court and obtained by NBC affiliate KSHB allege that Reid was driving the Dodge Ram truck in the crash, which occurred days before the team traveled to the Super Bowl in Florida. Reid was not expected to make the trip for the game.
In one of the court documents, a police officer wrote that Reid, whose eyes were bloodshot and red, admitted to being the driver, and the officer reported smelling “a moderate odor of alcoholic beverages.” Asked whether if he was on prescription medication, Reid replied he was on Adderall, the officer wrote.
The New York Times reported the circumstances of the crash:
According to the police, a vehicle ran out of gas on a freeway entrance ramp less than a mile from Arrowhead Stadium. The driver stopped with his flashers on and called his cousins for help. When they arrived, the cousins parked in front of the disabled car and left their lights on, as the battery was dying in the disabled car.
Reid entered the on-ramp driving a Ram pickup truck and hit the left front of the stranded car, according to the police incident report. The driver was sitting in the car and was not injured.
Reid’s pickup then slammed into the rear of the cousins’ car. The driver and an adult in the front passenger seat were not injured. But a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old sitting in the back were both injured and taken to the hospital, the 5-year-old with life-threatening injuries.
Head coach Andy Reid offered his support to Young and her family after the Super Bowl, which the Chiefs lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31 to 9.
“My heart goes out to all those that were involved in the accident, in particular the little girl who is fighting for her life,” Reid said. “I can’t comment any more than what I am here, so the questions that you have, I’m going to have to turn those down at this time. But just from a human standpoint, man, my heart bleeds for everyone involved in that.”