Boy tragically killed by car sounds like an Aspie: is AS often correlated with fear?

[Ste11aeres]

I was reading this story about a teenage boy who was killed by a car.* http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2014-04-23/teen-killed-vehicle-remembered-family-friends

"Her son had no shortage of quirks, but the oddities were exactly what made him so special, said Jermika Collins....

....
But while De’Monta was beyond his years in some aspects, he was behind in others, Collins said. His awkwardness at school made him an easy target for bullies, and he transferred to Sego after coming home from Glenn Hills Middle School last year with a black eye.

“We understood him, but a lot of people didn’t understand him,” Collins said."

Reading this, I couldn't help feeling I was reading about an Aspie.
Obviously, we can't diagnose anyone with certainty, based only on a few lines from a newspaper. Yet some of these words synchronize with things I've observed.

"Inexplicably, De’Monta also had a phobia of dogs. With no bad experience to speak of, Collins said animals of all kinds frightened her son, and he would even shriek at the sight of bugs on the ground."
It's been my personal experience of AS in children being connected with unusual or unusually strong fears. Has this been the experience of anyone else here?

(*I was reading this story as part of my ongoing research into dog-caused fatalities. This boy's death is listed by Merritt Clifton (the man responsible for the circulating statistics about pitbull-caused deaths) as a pitbull attack resulting in a death. However, the boy was hit by a car, not bitten by a dog. He had a phobia of animals and ran out into traffic when he became frightened of a friendly dog (pitbull) that was trying to play with a group of kids. )

 

[Warmheart]

While I can't diagnose the boy in the article, I can concur that ASD and strong fears often go hand-in-hand.
It is important to note that autism is also associated with bolting behavior. Autistic adults may bolt, too, not only children.
Blasting out of crowded waitingrooms is unfortunately a specialty for some of us. It is mindless and sudden. Not being able to read our internal signals of rising sensory overload due to poor interoception, we need to learn instead to read situations, to plan how best to manage being in those stressful situations. When we bolt, awareness of danger, or anything else, is limited. My compassion for this boy's family.

Regarding dogs, some autistics with strong sensory sensitivities coupled with tactile hypersensitivity recoil from any contact with pokey, pushy, jumpy, waggy, lick-y, hot-air-breathing, BARKY, dancing, personalbubble-crashing, whining, unpredictable dogs. Other autistics delight in the warm, loving, friendly, special, companionable doggy beings and thrill to the crashing, gallumping, rough-and-tumble interactions of many dogs. Quite individual.

 

[clg114]

This thread caught my eye because for me just the opposite is true. In my younger days I was a risk taker, mostly because I just was not afraid. I am able to stay calm when others around me can not. I have never made a conscious decision to be like that, it is just the way that I am. Since I have been diagnosed, I have thought that AS might be why I am like that. But after reading posts on AC, I am beginning think that just is not the case. I guess I must be a real odd, oddball.

I also seem to get along with dogs very well. My oldest son has a dog that does not like anyone outside of their immediate family, but this dog seems to like me. I have always gotten along with dogs, but I have always had at least one dog. Given their very strong sense of smell, maybe they smell my dogs. I do not know why they like me. My wife says that I must be very dog-like.

 

[Nitro]

I know that phobias run rampant in humans with any type of wiring so to speak,so it wouldn't surprise me if a flight reaction took a higher priority over a better response in this case.Fear can make anyone do crazy things,including running into the path of a moving vehicle.
I read somewhere several times that animals can sense our neurodiversity and are often calmed when in the presence of a person on the spectrum.Dogs pretty much leave me alone,or bond with me instantly,so I have no fear of them myself.Cats all seem to love me too,but I am allergic to the critters and shoo them away.
Much like clg has stated,I have always been a risk taker who likes to live on the edge.
The ones that will truly understand why we do what we do are probably exactly the same as we are