Update: Child injured after falling from bed of truck in Tornillo identified; mother arrested

After turning eight years old on Saturday, a Tornillo boy is now on life support after falling from the open bed of his mother’s pickup truck.

El Paso County Sheriff’s officials have identified the boy as eight year old Gerardo Reyes. Deputy Monica Varela said Gerardo’s mother, Cynthia Janette Ortiz Rivas, 27, has been arrested and charged with injury to a child.

Varela said Ortiz Rivas was on her way to her mother’s home on the 19,000 block of Tornillo Road on Tuesday afternoon. Ortiz Rivas was driving the dodge truck with Gerardo and her 6-year old nephew on the bed of the pickup, according to the Sheriff’s office.

Ortiz Rivas did not notice Gerardo had fallen off the truck until she arrived at her mother’s home, said Varela. “She asked her nephew, ‘Where’s Gerardo?’ And the little boy was like ‘Oh he fell over there.’ And the mother turned around and sure enough the boy was laying there in the middle of the street. He has severe head trauma. His brain is swollen. He had hemorrhaging in the brain. “

Varela said Ortiz Rivas drove more than the distance of a football field without noticing her son had fallen. “There was no evidence of how fast she was going other than what she told us she said she believe she was going 5 miles per hour.”

It’s illegal in Texas for anyone under the age of 18 to ride in the open bed of a truck. Ortiz Rivas was arrested on a $30,000 bond. “She couldn’t believe that it had happened. She didn’t think that her son having a joyride in the back of her truck was going to have these consequences,” said Varela who added Ortiz Rivas was “in silent shock” as deputies questioned her overnight.