ATLANTA — A young Georgia boy is recovering after he was hit by a car following the football game between Georgia Tech and Clemson Monday night.
Police said Kaine Chastain was walking ahead of his family as they were leaving Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and tried to cross Northside Drive. A police report states a driver in a black Cadillac sedan went through a yellow light shortly before 11:30 p.m., hit Kaine, initially slowed down, then kept going.
Several people stopped to help that night, including a Clemson fan who happened to be a nurse. While the search for her continues, so too does the search for the driver who landed Kaine in the hospital.
"I guess the car didn't see him, but they were barreling down the road," Jonathan Chastain, Kaine's father, said. "We were in the crosswalk. He got out of the way partially, which lucky for him he did or it could have been a lot worse. I just want them to come forward and accept the fact that he did something wrong. That, in my heart, is the most important thing. You learn from your mistakes, grow from them, and become a better person from them. I’m hoping that this person is that kind of person.”
Attorney Scott Campbell, who's not affiliated with the case, said Georgia law requires a driver to stay on the scene of an accident until law enforcement arrives.
"The driver might have had the right of way, but that doesn't tell the entire story," Campbell said. "The driver, just because they have the right of way, still has to exercise caution as they come through. They can't just blindly run into someone. The fact that the driver didn’t stay there raises a lot of questions in my mind about what else was going on. Is there some reason the driver couldn’t stay at the scene?”
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Police have not clarified if the driver involved would face charges if identified and caught. Jonathan Chastain has been by his son's side in the couple of days the 11-year-old has spent in the hospital.
"The first day was extreme pain for him," Jonathan said. "They tried to do a full leg cast to set it, so they didn’t have to do surgery. It didn’t work and it didn’t set properly, so they decided to go with the surgery. He was in surgery for about two to three hours.”
Now, Kaine is expected to be released and head back home to Jasper sometime Wednesday. Kaine told 11Alive he missed his family and his dog.
"When it happened, there were lots of thoughts racing through my head that I just couldn’t handle it," Kaine said. "I’m just happy I’m alive, that I’ll also get to go home and see my dog.”
Jonathan Chastain became a Georgia Tech football fan in 1982. He sports a Viking helmet when he goes to home games. Kaine, in turn, is also a big Yellowjacket football fan. He's received support from Tech fans and former players while he's been in the hospital. Jonathan said people have dropped off new clothes and fresh meals for the family as well.
Jonathan said his daughter is pretty traumatized after the hit-and-run, and noted the long recovery process for his son and his entire family. Kaine is expected to see a full recovery in the next six months. There's an online fundraiser helping the family deal with medical expenses.
"I told him that it’ll be okay, we’ll get through this," Jonathan said. "The good Lord is watching over us. He saved your life tonight, and no matter what, we can still keep going forward. The good Lord was watching over us, a guardian angel, I don’t know. But kind of pushed him out of the way is the kind of feeling you get in that situation, because a second later he would have been dead center in that car.”