Taylor Police: Teen on moped ran red light and fatally crashed into car

ALLEN PARK. Mich. (FOX2) – At Allen Park High School’s home game against Redford Union Friday Night, the meeting was about more than just football as a community came together.

Family and friends say 16-year-old Alan Rodgers, a junior standout for Allen Park, died Thursday afternoon when his moped crashed with a car near Ecorse and Telegraph in Taylor.

“When you have a child and I still consider a 16-year-old a child, it’s devastating,” Taylor Police Chief John Blair said. “It’s the impact on their family, their friends, their school.”

Blair says everyone is sad, including the driver who survived.

“The other driver that was involved is shocked. His family is shocked and our police family is shocked,” Blair said. “A lot of us have kids and it’s hard to see that and you can’t unsee what you saw there.”

Taylor investigators say the teen was riding his moped westbound on Ecorse and approaching an intersection when the driver of a car traveling eastbound attempted to turn left onto the southbound Telegraph ramp.

“We have some witness statements that the light was red,” Blair said. “It appears that the moped tried to continue driving, saw the car making a turn. He attempted to dump or drop the bike and put it down – and unfortunately was unable to do so and suffered fatal injuries.”

Chief Blair says the teen was not wearing a helmet at the time.

The news is still so fresh for many, and Rodgers’ classmates wore blue to support his team – while simultaneously processing so many lessons that came from it.

“I always talk to people about riding motorcycles to wear a helmet. I think that might have helped in this case,” Blair said. “For drivers, drivers: look twice. Motorcycles are easy to miss. We don’t want to make those mistakes.”