Collision on I-40 throws 1-year-old boy from vehicle

KINGMAN Ariz. -- A 1-year-old boy was unharmed despite being ejected from a vehicle and skidding about 150 feet along Interstate 40 while fastened in his child restraining seat Monday in northwest Arizona.

"He was strapped in the car seat and was flung from the vehicle, and he remained strapped in as he was sliding," Department of Public Safety officer Marty Harnisch said of X'zerion Bass. "When the seat came to a rest, he was fine. Not a scratch on him."

Harnisch said the infant and seven members of his family were moving back to Las Vegas after temporary residency in Texas didn't work out. He said the boy and five family members were riding in a van on a trailer being towed by a rented moving truck.

Harnisch said the assembly was westbound in Kingman shortly after 9 a.m. when the driver, Renika Bass, 26, missed the U.S. 93 turnoff to Las Vegas. He said she slowed to turn around in the median when an 18-wheeler clipped the van from behind.

Harnisch said several of the occupants of the van were ejected in the collision. All of them except Ellagance Bass, 7, were treated and released from Kingman Regional Medical Center, as were the two occupants of the rental truck.

Harnisch said the girl was in serious condition when flown to Sunrise Medical Center in Las Vegas.

The truck's driver was not harmed. His rig and the heavy equipment it was pulling came to rest in the median.