Sad story coming to light today. Last night at around 11:00 pm, an unnamed 16 year old girl was driving westbound on Wiley Canyon Road when her boyfriend -driving in an SUV or station wagon alongside her- accidentally sideswiped the girl’s SUV. The “impact caused the girl driving the SUV to lose control, careen off the roadway, and crash headfirst into a tree,” the LA Times reports.
The boyfriend stopped after the accident and tried to help free his girlfriend, who was pinned between the vehicle and tree. He suffered scrapes on his hands, but wasn’t able to free her.
Firefighters arrived and extracted the girl using the Jaws of Life system. She’s at Henry Mayo now suffering from “critical injuries” according to KHTS.
The KHTS report says that Sheriff’s investigators don’t think speeding was involved, but they think inexperience might have played apart.
Whenever I read stories like this, many question spring to mind. What was a 16 year old girl and her 17 year old boyfriend doing out that late in two separate cars? One would think they had been out together, especially since this wasn’t a school night (Hart District’s last day was June 5) and with gas prices being what they are.
When I was a boy in Catholic grade school, the nuns in charge of our instruction would pause teaching for a moment and order us to say a short prayer whenever we heard an ambulance or fire truck go by. Now, I live near Lyons & Orchard Village Road, the bee-line to Henry Mayo, and I must hear an ambulance and/or fire engine at least 6-10 times a day. Thinking back to last night, I remember hearing them around 11:30.
As for Wiley Canyon, you can get up to a pretty good clip on that road; it’s one of the faster, less-congested streets in town. It’s a long, gradually turning street with good lighting and good width and few stop lights.
What a tragic way to start summer vacation for the teenaged drivers we share the roads with.
Here’s hoping the young girl has a speedy and full recovery.