15-year-old girl succumbs to injuries after fatal rollover involving 5 teens

Five juveniles injured when Ford Explorer rolled on Valley View, St. George, Utah, June 23, 2014 | Photo by and courtesy of Ally Lund, St. George News

ST. GEORGE –The driver of a Ford Explorer which rolled on Valley View Drive in St. George Monday has died. The 15-year-old girl succumbed to the injuries sustained during the rollover and was pronounced dead at approximately 3 p.m. Friday.

The rollover occurred just before 10:07 p.m. on Monday when five juveniles – four boys and one girl, ranging from 15-18 years of age – were traveling southbound on Valley View Drive. The driver was driving at excessive speeds and lost control of the Explorer just before 670 North, St. George Police Capt. Mike Giles said. The vehicle slid sideways, started to roll and hit a chain link fence coming to rest perpendicular across the sidewalk by a power box.

Five juveniles injured when Ford Explorer rolled on Valley View, St. George, Utah, June 23, 2014 | Photo by and courtesy of Kenzii Lynn, St. George News
Five juveniles injured when Ford Explorer rolled on Valley View, St. George, Utah, June 23, 2014 | Photo by and courtesy of Kenzii Lynn, St. George News

One of the boys was ejected and the girl was trapped in the vehicle, requiring her to be extricated, St. George Police reported Tuesday. The other three boys were able to get out of the vehicle.

All of the vehicle’s occupants were initially transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, Giles said, and the female driver, who suffered serious injuries including severe head injuries was then flown by Life Flight to Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas.

The four juvenile boys were being treated at Dixie Regional for various injuries, including broken bones, but none that were expected to be life-threatening, Giles said.

Investigators found indications that occupants in the vehicle had been drinking, Giles said, although who among them and whether or not the driver was one of those drinking had yet to be determined.

At least two of the juveniles have been cited for consumption of alcohol by a minor. Further charges are pending as the accident remains under investigation.

In a Mother’s words

“I do need to recognize those people who truly do care and are concerned,” Holly Loveless, the mother of one of the teenage boys involved in the crash wrote in an email. “My son is doing fine physically. Emotionally this has been a struggle.”

Loveless went on to say:

One of the boys is still in the hospital after two surgeries. The other two boys have been released. They all broke their necks (besides my son). They can walk, thank goodness! I just really hope we can all pull together and help uplift these children. They definitely made mistakes but I’m hoping they can move forward from this and not fall apart. I do want the public to know how grateful we are for the care and concern that they have had. It is natural for us all to want answers when something like this happens and to question why. I can’t divulge any names or details but I’m surely grateful for the prayers and well wishes. I’m grateful my son is still here. He could very easily been killed or seriously injured.

Fundraiser and support

These tragedies can serve as a reminder and lesson to help prevent other such tragedies in the future. They can also provide a time for communities to rally together – to support and help carry one another through times of such great sorrow.

A fundraiser dance is being organized by D.J. Spinz and is scheduled to take place at the Dance Factory in Washington on July 12 at 9 p.m. to help the five families with medical expenses incurred as a result of the crash. Tickets will be $10 at the door.

Five of our young loved ones have been really devastated and hurt in a crash that happened recently on Valley View, D.J. Spinz wrote on the fundraiser Facebook page. He wen’t on to say that he is putting on the dance as a fundraiser to help the teen’s parents with any kind of medical bills that they have.

Flowers placed on a Valley View Drive fence where the rollover occurred, St. George, Utah, June 29, 2014 | Photo by Drew Allred, St. George News
Flowers placed on a Valley View Drive fence where the rollover occurred, St. George, Utah, June 29, 2014 | Photo by Drew Allred, St. George News

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33 Comments

  • San June 29, 2014 at 6:09 pm

    Aw, dam…*…..
    *Ed. elipses

  • speak the truth June 29, 2014 at 6:37 pm

    I’m sorry for the pain this family is feeling, and I’m glad the others will be okay, but lets all be thankful that the only one’s hurt were the one’s disrespecting the laws that are there to protect us. No innocent’s were involved…….. Mistakes have consequences and unfortunately some of those consequences are life long. I hope these kids learned from this, but its a little late for a 15 year old girl. So sad.

  • SSfreeze June 29, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    Medical bills? They are going to have HUGE legal bills very soon.

  • IN THE GAME June 29, 2014 at 9:02 pm

    Bills? really? I cannot imagine losing a child. May the family find peace and comfort in the days to come. My thoughts and prayers are with your family.

  • Jen Lindley June 29, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    My heart goes out the families involved. I hope they find a healing place. That being said, do not drive distracted or while intoxicated. If you do, expect to end up like any one of these kids sooner or later. That’s if your lucky and don’t kill someone else before that.

  • shady1 June 29, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    What parent gave the underage daughter keys to the car

    • Betty June 30, 2014 at 8:13 am

      Stupid. Really? I highly doubt her parents handed her the keys. I remember taking my parents car for a spin when I was 15 – without my parents permission. I damaged it and I suffered the consequences of my actions. That was 40-yrs ago and my family still reminds me. How many people have made really bad decisions (in their teenage yrs) but managed to “get away” with their indescression? Sadly she, like many of youth today, didn’t really weigh the cost of her poor decision. It costed her her life and the pain her family will endure not to mention the financial burden her parents will undoubtably incur. I’m pretty confident that she did not plan this outcome. Hopefully, the surviving young men will use this to reorganize their goals and learn a valuable lesson. Prayers to the parents and family of this precious young lady.

    • the Great One June 30, 2014 at 11:41 am

      Great question.

    • weston July 3, 2014 at 7:25 pm

      it wasn’t the girls car you dumb freak it was one of the boys moms car and he took the keys she didn’t give them to him get it straight if you don’t know don’t talk

  • Bob June 29, 2014 at 11:08 pm

    terrible to hear… R.I.P.

  • Katie June 30, 2014 at 4:43 am

    Why on EARTH was a 15yr old even driving? Why didnt ANY of the parents know what their kids were up to at that time of night? Parents, set curfews! I had them growing up , i promise you arent a bad parent if you set rules, protecting our kids is our job. This is sad, and could of been prevented

    • lina August 22, 2014 at 2:50 pm

      Why is that even your concern … that girl died and your worried about parents setting rules ? If kids want to get away with something they will , whether or not you set rules .. Kids will lie , their parents probably thought they knew where they were going & she wasnt driving the car the boy was ..

  • Lakers0881 June 30, 2014 at 8:11 am

    So sad indeed. I hope there will be precautions to prevent intoxicated people from coming or leaving the fundraiser. Are donations being taken anywhere?

  • My Evil Twin June 30, 2014 at 9:12 am

    What a waste of young life. If there was just some way to reach people and make them see that, “yes, it CAN happen to me!”
    Sometimes I wonder how any of us lived long enough to “grow up.”
    Condolences to everyone involved and to their families.

  • Shawni June 30, 2014 at 9:33 am

    This is terrible. All these comments are heartless. No one knows the story, the girl could have been playing the DD underage or not. How dare anyone say she isn’t “innocent” she is a child. 15 is still a child and someone’s beautiful daughter. What a tragidy. My prayers go out to all the families involved.

    • Lyssa June 30, 2014 at 10:00 pm

      Thank you Shawn, these people are all ignorance and how dare people judge someone else and not having the full story, even then who are we to judge. People who think they are better then others make me sick! We have all made divisions in life things that can’t be taken back!! My heart and prayers go out to the family’s and friends of everyone involved! May they have some peace!

  • lp June 30, 2014 at 10:12 am

    You holier than thou people need to shut your mouths..Havent we all done dumb things? And havent we all done things and then realized that the situation could have been alot worse than it turned out? Some of us just got lucky for unknown reasons. This poor girl didnt but there is no reason to badmouth her. People have no respect for those who have passed on lately. Why are so many people so uncaring? Karma will find you.

    • the Great One June 30, 2014 at 11:43 am

      She is bad mouthed because her decision hurt people! She could have killed others. She was the one who was disrespectful to everyone.

  • Katie June 30, 2014 at 1:44 pm

    To answer the question asked “havent you done anything dumb?” Um NO! My parents wouldve given me a butt whooping ! I KNEW better than to ever even attempt a stunt like this one. I have never done drugs or done anything remotely dangerous because i was brought up with moral, brought up knowing there are just somethings you never ever do.I am not blaming the girl, its a parental error, 100% .

  • Kathy June 30, 2014 at 2:43 pm

    Where has our compassion and kindness for each other gone? Why is it that people are mean and hateful at times like this….Be HONEST. We have all done something in our lives (maybe more than once) that could have had tragic results. For whatever reason we have been spared the consequence of our own wrong choice. Maybe this is a time to be thankful for that and show some sympathy and compassion for all those who have been so directly affected by this. I am so sorry for the pain and loss for these families. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

  • Mean momma June 30, 2014 at 2:53 pm

    A young life wasted. Too bad.

  • No Lesson Learned June 30, 2014 at 2:59 pm

    Eurdna Coleman

    June 26
    .
    To all of the people that say we deserved to wreck f*** you the drinking part we barley drink and that was a couple hours before drinking was not part of why we wrecked it was the fact that we were speeding so f*** all of you I love my homies and my family that’s all I care stop trying to be my friend now that I was in a wreck where were you all before? No where you could give a s…* about me and my friends in that wreck tho just wanna make yourself sound like you knew us
    *Ed. ellipses

    • LOL'd June 30, 2014 at 8:51 pm

      Yeah really, those boys need to be put on some juvenile detention work crew or something for a few years, or better yet locked up. They basically killed that poor girl with their negative influence … murderers.

    • weston July 3, 2014 at 7:31 pm

      Andrew its Weston I am realy sorry what happened I heard 3 days later I am always available to talk to you are a true homie

  • WATCH YOUR KIDS July 1, 2014 at 9:12 am

    Hey, No Lesson Learned, you NEED to learn a lesson from this. I hope you do as you age and mature. I’m sure the alcohol was just a part of what contributed to the events of that night. So many steps taken in the wrong direction in just a matter of hours that led to your injury and your friend’s death. Have you reviewed the day and put together the pieces that resulted in this tragedy? Get it together, boy, you can learn from this or use it as an excuse to become a pathetic, substance abusing, sad sack. What will it be? Clean up and stand up or wallow in pity and partying. I’m glad you are okay and I hope you don’t shy away from counseling. People do care about you and are watching to see what kind of man you grow into. All four of you, for that matter.

    • No Lesson Learned July 1, 2014 at 2:55 pm

      that was a post from one of the boys’ facebooks that was in the accident

      – I was saying there was no lesson learned due to what he wrote on there about it. I agree with you 100% that’s why I posted his comment from facebook so that people could see how the BOYS are acting about this.

      • WATCH YOUR KIDS July 2, 2014 at 8:40 am

        Wow, that is some unfortunate thinking on his part. Thanks for sharing.

        • Dana July 2, 2014 at 1:37 pm

          He needs to go to summer school.

  • Sweet Jude July 1, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    While there are quite a few insensitive and judgmental people here in St. George, it doesn’t sound like many of the commenters on here are that way. They are simply getting the point across that this was a terrible price that was called for in this circumstance. There are lessons to be learned from this. Though we shouldn’t judge people, we should learn to judge right from wrong. It is obvious that there are many misinformed teens in this town who live in a carefree society – that is, until something big such as this happens to them. Then they cry foul as if life is so merciless without any planning or logical consideration of the consequences. People need to wake up.. this is what annoys a vast majority of the citizens here in St. George. We get so fed up with the young and the restless who choose to remain in ignorance…as well as the parents who feed this monster. Sad story, sad situation, and sad ending for anyone involved…

  • redredred July 1, 2014 at 3:52 pm

    My condolences to the families involved in this tragic event. According to many of the youth that knew this young girl, her parents let her drive frequently without adult supervision in their car.
    As youth we all make mistakes, our jobs as parents is to help our children minimize those mistakes. If it is true her parents allowed this to happen, it is a mistake that will haunt them the rest of their days on earth. RIP

  • K July 1, 2014 at 4:52 pm

    K

  • Truly July 2, 2014 at 12:40 pm

    I don’t know why people use these comment opportunities to kick people in the face. Surly this is a difficult situation on all sides. A young life was lost and I am sure lessons were learned and struggles to get through. People assume all sorts of things and then bash people according to opinions and assumptions they presume to be absolute. Smarten up! My heart goes out to this young girls family and all those affected by this awful situation. Some times there are no words.

  • LOL'd July 3, 2014 at 12:00 am

    I wish we could get these idiots off the road before they kill someone else…

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