Man charged in boy's tractor death in Arkansas tested positive for alcohol, officials say

Stevie Neighbors
Stevie Neighbors

A man charged in the death of a 4-year-old boy who was run over by a bush hog mower Sunday admitted to authorities that he had alcohol in his system at the time, according to the Garland County sheriff’s office.

Stevie Neighbors, 53, who told investigators that he drank three or four beers earlier that day, tested positive for alcohol about two hours after the accident, a news release states. He faces a charge of manslaughter, a class C felony.

Neighbors also admitted to smoking two marijuana joints the night before the boy’s death, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office said it responded to a report of a child death around 11:40 a.m. Sunday to 1940 Three Sisters Springs Road in Mountain Pine, which is near Lake Ouachita State Park.

Authorities said the 4-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl later determined to be present had been standing on a tractor while Neighbors was bush hogging a field.

When a front tire went into a hole, the boy was thrown from the tractor and run over, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported. The girl was able to catch herself on the steering wheel, the sheriff’s office said.

Neighbors told investigators that he was driving the tractor at at a speed that reached 4 to 5 mph at the time of the death.

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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The Sentinel-Record

Garland County sheriff’s deputies and other first responders arrive Sunday at Lost Springs Ranch in Mountain Pine, where a 4-yearold boy was struck and killed by a mower.

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