A Girard, Ohio couple has sued the city, the school district and a police officer after their teenage son was struck by a patrol cruiser during a staged crash demonstration meant to warn students about the dangers of impaired driving. Jeremiah Hunter was lying beneath a sheet, playing a passenger who had died in the mock wreck, when the cruiser rolled over his hand and leg during an arrest reenactment, according to the lawsuit filed by his parents.
Ash Tolbert and Tina Hunter are suing the City of Girard, the Girard City School District and Girard police officer Robert Williams, according to WFMJ. The suit says Jeremiah was participating in a mock OVI crash on May 1, 2025, as part of a high school Prom Promise event, according to WKBN. The event, intended to show students the dangers of distracted or impaired driving ahead of prom season, took place in the back parking lot of Girard High School, featuring wrecked cars and a live reenactment of a crash scene, per the same account.
Cruiser Allegedly Drove Over Teen During Arrest Scene
Williams allegedly drove his cruiser over Jeremiah's right hand and leg while acting out an arrest during the staged demonstration, the lawsuit states. The injuries to his middle finger, hip, thigh and leg required a hospital visit, the suit says. The complaint also alleges that fire department personnel assisting with the demonstration placed Jeremiah directly in the path of the cruiser Williams was driving, as reported by WKBN.
The lawsuit's account of what happened next conflicts sharply with how a local fire official described the incident at the time. Girard Fire Chief Jim Petruzzi said the student was lying in the back parking lot of the school when the cruiser hit him by accident, per a separate WFMJ report. The lawsuit, however, alleges that Williams did not make any effort to avoid running over Jeremiah, and that he could have backed away or allowed the students involved to be repositioned before driving forward.
Dispute Over Who Was Supposed to Oversee Safety
Court filings also point to confusion over who was responsible for safety during the demonstration. The complaint alleges Petruzzi wrote that no safety officer had been appointed for the event, even though Williams identified Petruzzi himself as the presentation's designated safety coordinator, according to the WFMJ report detailing the lawsuit's claims.
Jeremiah's family is demanding compensatory and punitive damages, along with attorney fees and court costs, and has requested a jury trial, the lawsuit states. Girard City Schools Superintendent Bryan O'Hara said the district had not received an official copy of the complaint and that it would be inappropriate to comment on the specific allegations or circumstances surrounding the matter while litigation remains pending, he told WKBN.
Legal Hurdles Facing Claims Against a City and Its Officers
Any case against a city and its employees in Ohio runs into a thicket of governmental immunity law. Under state statute, a political subdivision is immune from liability if an employee's conduct that gave rise to a claim, other than negligent conduct, was required or authorized by law, according to Ohio Revised Code Section 2744.03. Separately, political subdivisions can be held liable for injury caused by employee negligence occurring on their own grounds tied to specified physical defects, per Ohio Revised Code Section 2744.02. Ohio law also bars punitive or exemplary damages for acts connected to a governmental or proprietary function, according to Ohio Revised Code Section 2744.05, a provision that could complicate the Hunter family's request for punitive damages against the city.
The Prom Promise program that brought police cruisers, wrecked vehicles and a staged crash scene to the Girard High School parking lot is part of a long tradition of pre-prom safety demonstrations nationwide, designed to drive home the real consequences of distracted and impaired driving before students head out for the dance. Those stakes are not abstract: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that distracted driving claimed 3,208 lives nationwide in 2024, and prevention efforts remain part of the agency's broader push to reduce road deaths.
The lawsuit does not specify a damages amount, and no court schedule has been made public. It remains unclear whether an Ohio State Highway Patrol investigation into the incident has concluded, and none of the named defendants — Williams, the city or the fire department — have yet issued a public response to the allegations.
