A Soap Box Derby racer suffered a concussion after being struck with a rock while riding her car last week at Derby Downs in Akron.
The 12-year-old girl from Orrville was using the hill at 7:30 p.m. April 30 when a juvenile tossed a rock from the bleachers inside the adjacent, closed Rubber Bowl stadium.
The victim had a concussion, and another car had about $800 worth of damage, a police report says.
Authorities, who released details about the incident Monday, couldn’t say the size of the rocks.
Police responded to Derby Downs after receiving a report of juveniles throwing rocks from the stadium onto the Soap Box Derby track. People at the scene detained the juveniles until police arrived.
Five juveniles — a 14-year-old girl from Akron, two 13-year-old boys from Springfield Township, a 12-year-old boy from Akron and a 14-year-old boy from Springfield Township — were arrested.
One of the 13-year-old boys was charged with criminal trespassing, criminal damaging and assault. The others were charged with trespassing.
All the suspects were released to their parents.
The victim’s stepmother, Elisha Jordan, said “a piece of the stadium” was thrown and landed between the two derby cars just as they crossed the finish line.
The chunk of concrete broke into pieces and hit the other car, Jordan said. Another chunk hit her stepdaughter in the head between the protective racing goggles and her helmet.
Jordan, who asked that her stepdaughter not be named, was near the finish line but didn’t see the object hit the ground.
The first sign that something was amiss came when her stepdaughter failed to apply her brake. Jordan said she kept shouting the girl’s name and after the fourth time, she finally hit the brakes.
“You could tell by the look on her face that something had happened,” she said. “She was dazed.”
The family took the seventh-grader to the Summa Health satellite emergency department in Green, where she was diagnosed with a concussion.
She is still recovering from the injury and has missed some school and sports, including track and softball.
“She is pretty ticked off about it,” Jordan said. “This has impacted her life.”
The girl was, however, cleared to race and returned to the track over the weekend for another rally race. Jordan said her stepdaughter, who just took up the sport last summer, clocked one of her best times ever.
“She was concerned that we were not going to let her race again,” she said. “She’s very passionate about racing.”
The rally race on April 30 was sponsored by the Akron Area Soap Box Derby and attracted local racers and participants from other states. Points are earned at rally races toward an invite to the All-American Soap Box Derby in July.
Jeff Iula, president of the Akron Area Soap Box Derby, said the rocks landed just beyond the finish line in a long open stretch where racers begin to apply their brakes and slow down.
He said the racers at that point are decelerating from the peak speed of just shy of 30 miles per hour down to about 20 mph.
“This was definitely a dangerous thing,” he said.
Aside from hitting a racer or a car, Iula said, rocks on the track could cause a car to flip, leaving a driver seriously injured.
The rocks were hurled from the old press box of the stadium at a distance of about 50 to 60 feet.
“Some of our guys and the dads started chasing them,” he said.
They were able to catch the kids in and around the stadium and brought them over to Derby Downs, where they were turned over to Akron police.
Derby officials have long complained about the condition of the Rubber Bowl, the former home of the University of Akron Zips football team that has sat unused since 2008.
The stadium, owned by Team 1 Properties, has fallen into disrepair.
The derby organization told the Beacon Journal last year that it was investing in surveillance cameras because of the vandals who are attracted to the site.
The Summit County Land Bank last month filed suit to foreclose on the Rubber Bowl property on behalf of county fiscal officer Kristen Scalise.
Iula said he is concerned that the stadium is only partially fenced off, allowing trespassers to find a way in.
“I really believe the city needs to do something to completely fence off the Rubber Bowl,” he said.
It appears this is the first time in the history of the derby in Akron that a racer has been hit by a rock thrown at the track during a race.
Iula, who is the unofficial derby historian in the city, said there have been other unexpected twists during races.
In the early days of the race, someone put a match stick on the starting line, creating a spark that damaged a rival’s wheel.
In the 1960s, Iula said, there was an instance during the All-American race where someone was shooting BBs at racers and the track.
“There were BBs all over the track,” he said. “Fortunately, no one was hurt and no one wrecked.”
Then there was the Akron Area Derby race in 1972 when Alice Cooper was performing at Rubber Bowl the same day as a local race.
“Someone yelled ‘the gates are open’ and we had 5,000 hippies running across the track in the middle of the races,” he said.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ . Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.