North Harford student killed on his way to school
16-year-old ‘great kid’ was running to catch the bus when he was hit by an SUV
A 16-year-old North Harford High School student died after being hit by an SUV while running to catch a school bus Tuesday morning, Maryland State Police said.
The student, Kyle Lynam, was late to his school bus stop and ran into Norrisville Road in White Hall to try to catch up to the bus, according to Cpl. Ethan Brown of the Maryland State Police Bel Air Barrack. The accident was reported at 6:42 a.m.
Lynam was running south on the northbound shoulder of Norrisville Road when he was hit by a 2015 Chevy Tahoe, according to a state police news release. The Tahoe was being driven by William P. Murphy Jr., 40, of Felton, Pa., whom police said is not facing any charges in the accident.
Police believe the bus had its yellow lights activated and had not yet deployed the stop sign with flashing red lights or extended arm to signal to traffic in both directions to come to a stop, according to the news release.
Lynam was taken to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air, where he underwent emergency surgery and died around 10:30 a.m., Brown said.
Lynam was the only child of Kimberly and John Lynam, but he had four cousins he was close with, Kimberly Lynam said.
“They were like his brothers and sisters,” she said.
Kyle and Kimberly lived with Kimberly’s brother, David Hebden, and his wife, Victoria, during the school year so Kyle could go to North Harford.
“He called me his ‘Nana.’ He couldn’t say Aunt Vicky when he was younger, so he called me ‘Nana,’ ” Victoria Hebden said. “I was like his second mom.”
Lynam had been in the Boy Scouts North Harford High 10th-grader Kyle Lynam, shown with his mother, Kimberly, was close to his cousins and active in Boy Scouts. organization for 11 years with Troop 809 and would have become a Life Scout at the end of this month, his mom said.
David Hebden was his Scoutmaster and den leader in Scouts. Kyle had just started getting ready to work on his Eagle Scout project, Victoria Hebden said.
Becoming an Eagle Scout — the next step beyond Life Scout and the culmination of a scouting career — was important to Kyle, she said. Her sons, David and Stephen, were both Eagle Scouts.
Kyle was funny, always trying to make people laugh at his jokes, his mother said. He was outgoing, and respectful when he was supposed to be, Kimberly Lynam said.
“He just liked to chill and hang out with his friends,” Lynam said. “He liked to go camping and playing basketball with his cousins.”
The10th-grader at North Harford loved school, too, she said, and his favorite subject was math.
”He was just a good kid, a great kid, a happy kid,” Hebden said. “He’d do anything for anybody. He wanted to make everybody proud of him and happy.”
Jake Schmidt, a 2018 graduate of North Harford High School and friend of Lynam, said he last saw the teen in late September at the school’s homecoming dance. It was the first time Schmidt, 18, had talked with Lynam in about a year.
He went to the dance with his girlfriend, along with Lynam and Lynam’s best friend, who is close friends with Schmidt’s girlfriend.
“We all took pictures and went out to the dance, and that was the last time I saw him,” Schmidt said Tuesday afternoon while working at the High’s convenience store at Route 24 and Route 165, about a half-mile west of the high school.
Schmidt, who attends Harford Community College, said he and Lynam were part of the same group of friends that had breakfast together at school each morning, as well as some lunches.
“He was a funny guy, tried to make jokes out of everything,” Schmidt recalled.
The friends grew apart during Schmidt’s senior year, though.
“It kind of feels like you should have stayed friends with them,” Schmidt said of the sudden loss. “You never know when somebody is going to pass away like that.”
Thomas Torbit of Jarrettsville met his grandson at the Eats & Sweets restaurant, just east of the high school, Tuesday afternoon.
Torbit said he has two grandsons who attend North Harford, where Lynam’s death was announced at the end of the school day Tuesday.
“I just feel bad for [Lynam’s] family, for all the kids that knew him personally,” he said.
The Harford County school system will provide counselors for Lynam’s fellow students, spokeswoman Jillian Lader said.
“We have reminded students, encouraged them, to talk with someone at the school or their parents or guardians about any feelings they may have,” Lader said.
Harford County Executive Barry Glassman offered his condolences on social media Tuesday, tweeting: “Heartbroken over the accident this morning in North Harford and the loss of 16 yr old Kyle Lynam. My prayers are with his family and the north Harford High community. CryoftheHawk rings true today.”