UPDATED: Police say no charges likely against driver who hit, killed pedestrian at Corbin McDonalds

One person is dead after being struck by a pick-up truck in the parking lot of a Corbin McDonald’s Monday afternoon, and police are investigating exactly how and why the accident happened, but they don’t expect that criminal charges will be filed against the driver of the truck.

Witnesses at the McDonald’s restaurant on Master Street said the woman, later identified as 66-year-old Norma Hicks of Parker’s Lake in McCreary County, was struck and killed by the truck around 4:40 p.m. Kentucky State Police, Corbin Police and deputies with the Knox County Sheriff’s Deputies were all on scene shortly after the incident was reported. The truck came to rest up over the curb near the drive-thru lanes. It had significant front-end damage caused when it struck the building.

Hicks was at the restaurant eating with her family.

The truck, driven by 19-year-old Aaron Potter of Corbin, turned off of Commonwealth Ave. and was going around the restaurant at a high rate of speed, police said, when the accident happened.

Witnesses also said Potter claimed the accelerator of the Ford F-150 truck got stuck as he was driving through the parking lot, and that he had tried to avoid hitting the victim, but couldn’t. Potter was taken into custody by police for questioning and transported to Baptist Health Corbin for blood tests. Authorities do not believe, at this time, drugs or alcohol were factors in the accident.

Potter was escorted to a waiting Kentucky State Police cruiser but was was cooperating with the trooper and had not been placed in handcuffs.

Kentucky State Police Trooper Shane Jacobs, public affairs officer at Post 10 in Harlan, said no charges have been filed against the driver and investigators have no plans to present the case to a Knox County grand jury for possible indictment.

Kentucky State Police accident reconstructionists are investigating the incident.

Jacobs said it will take several months for the reconstructionists to confirm the cause of the crash.

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