Folks around Hyden are holding each other a little tighter this week after a quiet Saturday afternoon turned into a total nightmare. A high school kid with his whole life ahead of him was taken in the blink of an eye on a stretch of highway everybody around here knows all too well.
It happened around 2:54 p.m. right near the 37-mile marker on the Hal Rogers Parkway.
Seventeen-year-old Taegan Mosley was behind the wheel of his Nissan Juke, heading westbound toward home. Nobody really knows what went wrong in that split second, but state police say his car crossed over the center line.
Right in the path of Taegan’s car was an eastbound Ford Expedition. The head-on impact was brutal, smashing both vehicles right on the open road. Emergency crews rushed to the scene as fast as their sirens could carry them, but there was nothing anyone could do for the young driver.
Taegan was pronounced dead right there at the scene. Just like that, a seventeen-year-old boy who was supposed to have decades of memories left to make was gone. The shock hit the entire county like a freight train, leaving friends, family, and classmates struggling to make sense of something that just does not make sense.
The crash didn’t just break hearts for Taegan’s family. Inside the Ford Expedition, a 64-year-old grandmother named Penny Ison from Cornettsville was riding along with her family. First responders rushed her over to Mary Breckinridge Hospital, but she passed away from her injuries shortly after arriving.
Two other people in the Expedition were severely hurt in the collision. First responders had to call in helicopter transports to fly the driver and a young kid on board straight to the University of Kentucky Medical Center. They are still fighting to recover while two families grieve deep losses.
Kentucky State Police troopers are still piecing together how and why the Nissan Juke drifted across that yellow line. But for the people in Hyden, no investigation will bring back the warm smile and bright future of Taegan Mosley. His memory is going to stay locked tight in the hearts of this small mountain town forever.
Leave a Reply