A 14-year-old boy was struck by a motor vehicle while running in the Monroe County Watermelon Festival 5K on Center Point Road in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, on Saturday morning, and was later airlifted to a children's hospital in Nashville. Tompkinsville Police say the boy sustained injuries during the race and that the crash investigation remains ongoing.
A Kentucky Transportation Cabinet document identifies Center Point Road as KY 100.
According to WBKO, Tompkinsville Police Department officers received a dispatch call about a motor vehicle crash on Center Point Road on Saturday. The teen was initially taken to Monroe County Medical Center, the county's 49-bed acute care hospital that also operates local EMS and 911 dispatch, before being airlifted to Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville. The Nashville facility is the only verified Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center within 200 miles, which explains why the boy was flown across state lines for specialized care rather than treated closer to home.
What Happened During the Race
Tompkinsville Police Assistant Chief Tyler Shaw said the boy was injured during the Watermelon Festival 5K, but the department has not detailed how the vehicle came into contact with the runner. Per the department, one officer was leading the race route ahead of the first runner, while an ambulance was positioned at the back of the field of 5K participants. However, no officers were assigned to traffic control duties along the route itself, according to the Tompkinsville Police Department.
That detail could draw scrutiny under Kentucky Revised Statutes ยง 189.503, which requires local governments authorizing road races or athletic events on public streets to submit a formal road closure and traffic control plan to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet at least 60 days before the event, per the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Office of Highway Safety guidance also requires drivers to exercise heightened vigilance, yield right-of-way, and maintain safe clearance when sharing roads with pedestrians and runners, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
According to Kentucky.gov's 2019 Traffic Collision Facts report, 74 pedestrians were killed and 804 were injured in traffic collisions that year.
A Long-Running Local Tradition
Saturday's race was part of the 47th annual Monroe County Watermelon Festival, a downtown Tompkinsville tradition established in 1980 that draws thousands of regional visitors every year on the Saturday before Labor Day, according to Kentucky Living. Center Point Road, where the collision occurred, is a rural thoroughfare that has regularly appeared in local law enforcement traffic monitoring efforts over the years.
Recent Crashes Around Monroe County
The collision adds to a string of serious traffic incidents in and around Tompkinsville in recent months. Six weeks before the festival crash, Kentucky State Police Post 15 investigated a fatal single-vehicle rollover on KY 63 in Monroe County that killed an 18-year-old Tompkinsville resident, the agency said in July. In June, a high-speed police pursuit that began near the Monroe County line ended in a three-vehicle collision at the intersection of KY 163 and Columbia Avenue in downtown Tompkinsville, injuring two people, as reported by Glasgow News 1. State police also investigated a fatal two-vehicle crash on County House Road in April 2025 that killed a 19-year-old Tompkinsville resident in a motorcycle collision.
The pattern of severe crashes on Monroe County's rural roads underscores the traffic safety concerns now surrounding Saturday's incident. A comparable tragedy struck another community celebration last year, when the Pageland Watermelon Festival in South Carolina was abruptly canceled following the death of a 17-year-old high school athlete during festival activities, according to WSOC-TV.
Investigation Continues
Tompkinsville Police say the crash investigation is ongoing, per Shaw, and that additional information will be released as it becomes available, according to police. It remains unclear who was driving the vehicle that struck the teen or whether any citations or charges will be filed. It's also unknown whether festival organizers or city officials plan to revisit traffic safety measures for future events along the race route.
