Sunday, September 13, 2009

WEST VIRGINIA: Three people died following a car crash Sunday evening. A local TV station says four teens were driving in a sedan when the driver lost control, colliding with a minivan. The sedan caught fire while all four teens were still inside. Two teens -- Kylee Braham, 16, and Riley Puckett, 19, died at the scene. Brittany Waters, 16, died a few days later, police said. A fourth teen, Zach Simon, 16, is in critical condition. All six passengers in the minivan were taken to the hospital.

MICHIGAN: A teenager was thrown from a vehicle near Detroit after a high-speed pursuit with police, and later died. Police have not identified the 15-year-old Detroit resident, who was a passenger in the car. Two other teens, including the driver, were arrested after the car crashed into a stop sign, fire hydrant and tool supply store in Redmond. See the story for more details here.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A 17-year-old Myrtle Beach teen died around 3:30 a.m. after the car he was in failed to stop at a stop sign, crossed over the highway, struck a ditch, struck a tree, and then overturned several times. Patrick McNeese, 17, died at the scene of the crash. This report says another person in the car was taken to the hospital, and police are unsure who was driving the car at the time of the crash.

UPDATE: I'm sure there's a chance there could be another Patrick McNeese in the South Carolina area that surfs, but I'll take the chance that this photo is him There are more photos of Patrick surfing here.

Another update: There is a memorial story here and video of some of Patrick's surfing friends.

INDIANA: A local TV station is reporting that 18-year-old Tommy Allen died in a motorcycle/car accident after he failed to stop his bike at a stop light and ran into the side of a Volkswagen Jetta. He was taken to the hospital, where he later died.

PENNSYLVANIA: This is the second driving-related teen death for this part of Pennsylvania in the past couple weeks. The Leader-Vindicator reports that 18-year-old Shane Edward Horner of Brockway died around 3:15 p.m. at the scene of the crash, and two people from Canada were seriously injured. Shane veered into the shoulder and up onto someone's lawn before overcorrecting and driving across the road into oncoming traffic. He struck a minivan driven by an older Canadian man, who was taken to the hospital along with his passenger.

Friends have set up a Facebook memorial page for Shane, who seemed to love to dance.