Myspace Doesn't End At Death
[5/5/06]
Javier Martinez
Adrian Valladolid
HUGHSON, Calif.- Two teenagers are dead after driving around a crossing arm and being struck by a speeding Amtrak train full of passengers near Modesto.
Police say sixteen-year-old Javier Martinez was driving erratically in a Honda Civic before the late Friday morning accident in Hughson.
Police say Martinez he drove past stopped traffic at the railroad crossing and then onto the tracks with his 15-year-old passenger, Adrian Valladolid.
Both were students at Turlock High School.
The train stopped about a quarter-mile north of the intersection with the Honda stuck to its front. | Published Monday, May 08, 2006 by Admin.
[3/2/06]
Brittani Head was set to graduate from Crossroads Christian Academy in May. Shortly before Brittani died, her mom just finished paying for her senior trip to Cancun, where Brittani planned to go with some local friends, and some friends from Florida.
She loved sports: soccer, softball and cheerleading, and was a big LSU tiger fan, said her dad, Glynn Head.
Her mother said she loved to help people.
"She took on everybody else's problems," Jamie Head said.
Still, Brittani was a typical teen in many ways.
It was not unusual for her to do homework with the radio going, reading and chatting with friends on her computer.
"I would walk in ... and say, 'How can you concentrate?' " Jamie Head recalled.
Brittani always reassured her mother that she was good at multitasking.
At night, she liked to be in her room on the computer.
"She got that laptop for Christmas, and she just loved it," her mother said.
Like other teens her age, Brittani had a spot on MySpace.com - a Web site used by teens to chat and exchange ideas and images. Now, her friends post messages on it to remember her.
"It has been hard," Glynn Head said of the days since his daughter's death. "I have to be strong for my wife and my younger daughter, now my only daughter."
Brittani's room will remain intact, said her mother.
"I plan to leave it just as it is," Jamie Head said. "I feel like she is in there."
| Published by Admin.
[5/4/06]
A Northern Lehigh High School athlete was fatally injured Thursday when her car crashed into a tree in Washington Township, Lehigh County, state police and a county official said.
Mallory Bomboy, 18, of 6235 Ventura Court in the township, died at 5:36 p.m. at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, said Paul Hoffman, Lehigh County first deputy coroner. He said his office ruled she died as a result of blunt force trauma to her head and chest.
The 5 p.m. crash happened 51/2 miles from her home.
Bomboy was driving south on Rextown Road at William Circle when she lost control at a curve, said state police at Bethlehem. She tried to regain control, but the car crossed the road and the driver's side smashed into a tree.
She was flown by helicopter to the hospital, where she was dead on arrival, police said.
Her father, Timothy Bomboy, said he was at the high school in Slatington waiting for his daughter to show up for softball practice when someone told him there had been an accident nearby. He tried to call Mallory but couldn't reach her, he said.
He rushed to the scene of the crash, where police told him his daughter had been flown away. He later learned she died, he said.
''She was my daughter. She was a lovely girl,'' he said. ''She was tall and beautiful and athletic and friendly.''
| Published Saturday, May 06, 2006 by Admin.
[4/30/06]
JONESVILLE -- A 17-year-old Archer girl died Sunday after sustaining incapacitating injuries in a car accident Friday when her 1997 Ford truck slammed into a fully loaded dump truck on County Road 241 in Jonesville.
Danielle Joy Giesler was transported to Shands at the University of Florida by Alachua County Emergency Medical Service after the accident but she later died from her injuries.
Martha Taylor Green, 68, of Gainesville, was attempting to make a left turn northbound onto County Road 241 from the intersection at Southwest 15th Avenue at about 2:20 p.m. when the accident happened.
Giesler was driving southbound on County Road 241 approaching the same intersection, but Green allegedly failed to notice Giesler’s car.
According to reports, Green violated Giesler’s right-of-way by turning without yielding. Giesler attempted to evade a collision with Green by steering her vehicle to the right, but she then lost control of her truck and traveled into the northbound lane of the road.
Jerry T. Cummings, 38, of Morriston, was driving a fully-loaded dump truck northbound at the time that Giesler’s vehicle drove into his path.
Giesler’s truck then collided head-on with the dump truck, causing the Giesler’s truck to crumple and spin around until facing east and coming to a stop on the shoulder of the road.
Alachua County EMS teams worked to extract Giesler from her crushed vehicle before transporting her to Shands at UF, where she died Sunday morning.
No one else was injured in the accident.
”It’s just one of those terrible things that you wish you could change,” Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Mike Burroughs said. “Small mistakes can turn into big problems. It was a pretty nasty scene.”
| Published by Admin.
[4/17/06]
Brian Samson, a 19-year-old who was injured in an April 13 accident, died April 17, the Lakeland police said Thursday.
Samson, of Sugarloaf Key, was riding on his skateboard while hanging onto the back of a golf cart when he fell off the skateboard shortly before 3:30 p.m. on April 13, LPD said. The accident happened in Lone Palm subdivision.
Police were notified of Samson's death April 20 and began an investigation. The death is being treated as a traffic fatality. Samson's death is Lakeland's eighth traffic fatality so far this year, police said.
| Published by Admin.
[5/3/06]
DAPHNE, Alabama - A Daphne High School sophomore killed in a rollover crash Wednesday evening was apparently using a cell phone while driving and that may have led her to lose control of the car, police said Thursday.
Chelsea Ann Bragg, 16, was headed west on U.S. 90 between Bayview Drive and Baldwin County 13 around 5:30 p.m. when the 2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue she was driving veered off the north shoulder of the road, Daphne police said in a news release.
She "appeared to jerk the steering wheel to get back on the road," and the car rolled twice, landing upright in the highway and blocking both directions of traffic, according to police.
Investigators believe that Bragg was talking on her cell phone or using it to send a text message at the time of the wreck, according to Daphne Police Capt. Scott Taylor.
"And factor in that this person's only 16. An inexperienced driver being distracted by using the cell phone -- that just makes it more of a risk that something could happen," said Taylor, head of the department's traffic division.
Bragg was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:10 p.m., according to Baldwin County Deputy Coroner Stan Vinson. A passenger in the car, a 16-year-old girl whose name was not released because of her age, was taken to Thomas Hospital in Fairhope with minor injuries, police said. Information about her medical condition was not available Thursday.
Bragg was not wearing her seat belt, according to Taylor, who said Bragg "definitely would've had a greater chance of walking away" had she been wearing one. The passenger in the car was wearing a seat belt, Taylor said.
There was no indication that speed, alcohol or drugs played a role in the wreck, according to Taylor.
| Published Friday, May 05, 2006 by Admin.
[4/19/06]
HUDSON - The Hudson Police Department is investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a 19-year-old at his home on April 19.
Michael D. Rajala, 806 River St., was found by his girlfriend in his parents’ home early last Wednesday morning. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hudson Police Detective Jeff Knopps said an autopsy was performed as well as several toxicology tests. The results of those tests could take four to six weeks, and an official cause of death will not be available until they are completed. Knopps could not comment on any other details of the investigation.
| Published by Admin.
[5/4/06]
OMAHA, Neb. -- An Omaha teenager who was injured in a car crash on April 23 has died.
Jeneca Purl, 17, died Thursday morning, according to family.
She and Brittany Sundberg, 18, were thrown from a pickup truck on 105th Street near Forrest Avenue. Sundberg was treated at an Omaha hospital and has been released. Purl, who was driving, hit her head on the pavement. | Published by Admin.
[5/3/06]
MARBURY, Alabama — A 16-year-old Marbury High School student died in a traffic crash Wednesday afternoon.
Samantha Cox, a softball player at the school, was killed shortly after leaving practice around 4 p.m., said Billy Brown, Autauga County coroner.
An Alabama Department of Public Safety dispatcher confirmed that the call came in around 4:44 p.m.
The single-vehicle crash occurred on County Road 56 near Marbury, the dispatcher said. No other details were immediately released.
| Published Wednesday, May 03, 2006 by Admin.
[5/1/06]
Three days after his senior prom, a 17-year-old boy waited in Sacramento County juvenile Hall on Tuesday to learn the legal consequences of a mistake that left a friend dead.
Philip James McCarthy, 18, died after being hit by a Pontiac Grand Am and thrown against the garage of his Cabrillo Way home Monday afternoon.
The two friends were close, family members said, and were headed to an afternoon Regional Occupational Program construction class.
Details of the accident still were being investigated Tuesday, but detectives believe unsafe speed may have been the cause, Sacramento Police Sgt. Terrell Marshall said.
"His speed was such that he could not stop in time to react to his friend being there," Marshall said of the young driver.
He was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter hours after McCarthy died. It is unknown if horseplay was involved or if the driver hit the gas pedal instead of the brake, Marshall said. But he added that there appeared to be no animosity between the two.
The driver's name is not being released by police because of his age.
| Published by Admin.
[4/29/06]
A Statesville-area teenager died Saturday from injuries he sustained when the four-wheeler he was driving crashed, authorities said.
Jesse Dale Evans, 16, hit a tree and was dead at the scene, said Det. Andy Poteat with the Iredell County Sheriff's Office. It appears that Evans' injuries from hitting the tree caused his death, Poteat said, but the medical examiner's report is not complete.
His body was found lying in the grass on Jimmy Drive off Shiloh Road by someone driving by who noticed an idle four-wheeler running, Poteat said.
Evans was not wearing a helmet. State law requires four-wheeler operators to wear a helmet at all times.
Evans was about half a mile from his house and driving alone, Poteat said.
| Published by Admin.
[4/30/06]
AURORA - An Eaglecrest High School student who was found dead at an Aurora home Sunday had trouble walking and was stumbling before he passed out, according to the teenager who called police to report him dead.
Aurora police are calling the death of 16-year- old Brandon Bates suspicious, although they say there were no signs of trauma or foul play when they found him about 11:30 a.m.
The Arapahoe County Coroner's Office conducted an autopsy Monday, but said they are waiting for the toxicology results to determine a cause of death.
Benji Christiansan, a sophomore at Eaglecrest, said that when he woke up Sunday he found his classmate dead, lying on the bed across from him.
"There was nothing I could do to save him," said Christiansan, who said he only knew Bates from the times they passed each other in the school hallways.
About 4 a.m. Sunday, Christiansan said a friend brought Bates to his home in the 3800 block of South Genoa Court, telling him Bates had taken some pills and asking if Bates could sleep at his house.
According to Christiansan, Bates' friends are saying the teenager had chased the pills down with alcohol hours before he died.
Christiansan's mother, Debbie, said she wasn't home when Bates arrived because she works at night and didn't get home until about 5:40 a.m.
"So I woke up to the fire department coming to my house and my son telling me, 'I'm sorry,' " she said.
Christiansan said her son told her Bates was brought into the house through a window and was having trouble keeping his balance.
"I was panicking most of the time; I didn't know what to do," Benji Christiansan said.
| Published Tuesday, May 02, 2006 by Admin.
[5/1/06]
BOULDER, Colo. -- A teenager who drove her car into the path of an ambulance died when she was broadsided in Boulder Monday evening.
The accident happened at 6:50 p.m. at the intersection of 30th Street and Euclid Avenue.
According to police, a Pridemark Paramedic Services ambulance was traveling southbound on 30th Street with its emergency lights and siren activated. A black Honda Civic traveling eastbound on Euclid Avenue attempted to turn onto northbound 30th Street when it was struck on the driver's side by the ambulance.
The female driver of the Honda was transported to the hospital but died. She was the only occupant in that vehicle and was identified as Hannah Nicole Bauer Boemker, 16, of Lafayette, Colo.
Hannah worked as part of the dining room wait staff at the Golden West Senior Residence Center two blocks away from the crash scene. She was on her way home from her part-time job when she pulled out in front of the ambulance, police said.
"I was sitting in my living room and I heard some sirens coming down the street and then I heard the crash at the end of the block," said witness Trey Miler.
The impact of the ambulance shoved Hannah's car 85 feet down the street and up and over a curb.
The male driver of the ambulance was transported to the hospital with minor injuries and released. A second paramedic in the ambulance did not need medical assistance. The ambulance was going to a call and there were no patients inside at the time, according to police. | Published by Admin.
[4/29/06]
STREATOR -- The youth killed in a weekend accident was identified Monday as a Streator High School junior.
Killed was David Robinson, 17, of Streator, who was thrown from the one-vehicle accident on a Reading Township road south of Streator.
He died in the emergency room of St. Mary’s Hospital in Streator about a half hour after the 10:30 p.m. accident Saturday.
Livingston County authorities said he was in the back seat of the car when the accident occurred and was the only one not wearing a seat belt.
The driver and four other passengers, all from Streator, were treated for injuries and released.
Fellow students were told of the accident when school began Monday. School officials and the LaSalle County’s school crises assistance team were on hand for those students who wanted grief counseling.
Authorities said Robinson was in a car driven by Johnathan Doedler, 18, of Streator, who rolled the vehicle while trying to avoid a deer. He was ticketed for driving too fast for conditions on the rain-slicked road.
| Published by Admin.
[4/30/06]
Samantha Chadwell
Tiffany Jackson
ONA -- She had worked at Dairy Queen for two years to save money for college, but 17-year-old Tiffany Jackson of Milton won't get the chance to study at Marshall University.
Jackson, who had planned to be a radiology technician, and her close friend Samantha Chadwell, 16, of Ona, both died Sunday morning after a single-vehicle accident on U.S. 60.
The teenagers, both sophomores at Cabell Midland High, spent the night at a friend's house Saturday night, and around
7:30 a.m. Sunday, the car Jackson was driving drifted off the road just east of the old Kiwanisvista Park in Ona.
It appears the car, a 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier, traveled more than 200 feet in the grass before striking a tree, said Chief Deputy Jim Scheidler of the Cabell County Sheriff's Department. The car was traveling east. | Published Monday, May 01, 2006 by Admin.
[4/30/06]
HILLSBOROUGH -- An 18-year-old borough teenager died early this morning at a New Brunswick hospital after his car crashed on Millstone River Road, police said.
Nicholas J. Boris Jr., of Sunnyside Lane was pronounced dead at 9:15 a.m. at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where he was flown by Medevac helicopter after the crash at 3:17 a.m., police said.
The crash happened while Boris was driving a 2003 Dodge Neon near Craig Drive and the car began to spin clockwise while Boris was negotiating a curve, police said.
The car continued south, striking two mailboxes and a utility pole before stopping and facing southwest on the front lawn of a residence on Millstone River Road, police said. Boris had no passengers.
| Published by Admin.
[4/28/06]
TRAVERSE CITY - Authorities Friday afternoon identified five teen victims of a two-vehicle crash on South Airport Road in Traverse City, about 21 hours after the teens' 1995 Mazda veered across several lanes and into the path of a supply truck.
The dead included three Traverse City boys: Phougheune Siphengphet and Davy Koumliene, both 16, and both students at Central High School, and Dath Keovongkoth, 17, a student at Traverse City High School.
Siphengphet and Keovongkoth were not wearing seatbelts; Koumliene wore a seatbelt, authorities said.
Survivors included the driver, Justin Jason Nguyen, 17, of Traverse City, and the lone female occupant, Bao Hang Nguyen, also 17. They both attend Traverse City High School.
Justin Nguyen was wearing a seatbelt and remains hospitalized at Munson Medical Center, but is expected to recover. Bao Nguyen was treated and released Thursday. She did not wear a seatbelt.
Curtis Kramer, 30, of Interlochen, drove the truck owned by Ferguson Traverse Supply Company that the teens' vehicle struck. Kramer was not injured.
Authorities believe the teens' vehicle was traveling at an excess speed. A witness told the Record-Eagle the vehicle appeared to be chasing another and swerved out of control before striking the supply truck.
The investigation continues, officials with the Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Department said.
| Published Saturday, April 29, 2006 by Admin.
[4/26/06]
DENVER (AP) — A 17-year-old fulfilling a dream to learn rodeo died after a horse rolled on top of him during his first bucking bronco ride, his family said.
Stuart Mazanec died Wednesday from organ damage, four days after the accident at a weekend rodeo clinic in Byers, about 30 miles east of Denver.
‘‘It was his first and last ride,’’ said his mother, Pam Mazanec.
Stuart Mazanec was a senior at Douglas County High School south of Denver and active in 4-H, and rodeo had caught his attention, said Jay Brentner, a family friend and veteran rodeo rider.
‘‘I’d tell him stories about all the rodeos I’ve been to, and he thought it was pretty cool,’’ Brentner said.
Mazanec had finished the standard 10-second bareback ride at the rodeo clinic and was trying to get off the bronco when his hand got caught in the rigging around the horse’s neck, said Brentner, who was at the clinic.
Mazanec tried to run alongside the horse, but the animal staggered, tripped and landed atop of him, Brentner said. When the horse got up, the teen was hanging limply at its side, he said.
After he was airlifted to Swedish Medical Center in Denver, Mazanec managed to speak despite a broken jaw, Pam Mazanec said.
‘‘The first thing he told me was, ‘Mom, don’t cry,’” she said.
By Wednesday, his body began to fail, and the family decided to remove life-support that night after consulting with doctors and a priest, she said.
Pat Bohlender-Lowe of the Colorado State High School Rodeo Association said she could recall only one other fatality in youth rodeo in Colorado, a bull-riding accident about 20 years ago.
‘‘People sometimes forget what a rough sport it is,’’ said Brentner. ‘‘But for Stuart, the one thing he always wanted to try ended up being the thing that killed him.’’
| Published by Admin.
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