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New Details Emerge in Car Accident That Left Angels Minor Leaguer in Critical Condition

Clarke Central's Rio Foster poses for a photo with his super fan mom Iris Cleveland before a high school baseball game.
Clarke Central's Rio Foster poses for a photo with his super fan mom Iris Cleveland before a high school baseball game. | Joshua L. Jones via Imagn Content Services, LLC

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The mother of Rio Foster, the Angels prospect who was critically injured in an automobile accident last week in Washington state, has organized a GoFundMe for her son. The post from Iris Cleveland, Foster's mother, includes new details about the crash that left Foster in critical condition.

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"Early Friday morning, Rio was a backseat passenger involved in a car accident," the post reads. "Rio was ejected from the vehicle and suffers from a traumatic brain injury along with skull and facial fractures and remains in critical condition although he is stable. He’s undergone a brain surgery, and will need more procedures done over the course of the next few months, on top of physical therapy."

According to The Athletic, the single-car crash occurred early Friday morning in Richland, Washington, near the home field of the Class-A Tri-City Dust Devils, an Angels affiliate.

A speeding car carrying Foster hit a fence and a power pole around 2 a.m. Pacific Time, ejecting Foster and another passenger from the vehicle. The driver, 23-year-old Ashante Sanders-Jackson, was booked by Richland Police on three counts of vehicular assault and found to be impaired by alcohol.

Foster, 22, was named Northwest League Player of the Month for August. He has a .267 batting average, .407 on-base percentage, and .439 slugging percentage in 93 games this season for Tri-City.

The Dust Devils cancelled Friday's game after news of Foster's accident spread.

"This same day Rio was named Player of the Month for his organization and was supposed to be playing in the Fall League in Arizona within the next few weeks," reads the update on Foster's GoFundMe page. "Rio is the most humble, kind and respectful young man and this is the most unfortunate circumstance. He worked so hard to get to where he is today, and was on fire these past fews [six] weeks.

"Although he’s in this predicament we know that this is something he will come back from, and 10x stronger. Please, please, please keep him in your prayers. Rio is not in his home state and we are trying to get him back home with his mom and family, but also make sure he has everything he needs medical wise. Anything helps and is so greatly appreciated."

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Foster was a 16th-round draft pick by the Angels in 2023 and a native of Athens, Ga.

The GoFundMe had already surpassed its goal of $11,000.

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J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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