Text message preceded deadly accident

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A man whose 2-year-old son was killed during a four-wheeler crash in Missouri says he looked down to see a text message immediately before the accident.

Nicholas Moore, 29, said that while riding with his son Jackson on his lap Saturday, he briefly looked at his cell phone to check the message and the vehicle suddenly crashed, his son flying off into the distance, the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch said Monday.

"He went out of sight ...," Moore said.

Moore said he immediately found his son amid several trees but the child's injuries were so severe he did not respond to cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

"We were riding around having a good day," Moore told the Post-Dispatch. "He was having the time of his life."

The Missouri Highway Patrol said Jackson was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash in Franklin County.