Four teens injured in car crash

Thursday, March 10, 2005 | 10:56 a.m.

The four Centennial High School students who were injured in a rollover crash Wednesday almost got into a wreck moments before in the school parking lot, according to statements given to Metro Police.

The teens apparently continued horsing around in their Jeep Wrangler until they crashed on Centennial Parkway and had to be taken to the hospital, authorities said.

Police were still investigating this morning, but Detective Bob Holland said that apparently the driver's 14-year-old sister grabbed the steering wheel, causing the Jeep to swerve. It then flipped in the desert before landing upright and rolling into a wall.

Anthony Burton Jr., 17, a senior and captain of the Bulldogs, the school's basketball team, was partially thrown from the Jeep, police said. He was taken to University Medical Center by medical helicopter with a deep head injury that had his initial condition listed as critical, authorities said.

By this morning, however, his condition had been upgraded to fair, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Burton's sister, Jackie, a Centennial freshman and a basketball player herself, was ejected from the front passenger seat of the Jeep when it rolled over, police said. She suffered a broken left wrist and other injuries and was also in fair condition this morning.

Backseat passengers Michael Josserand and Torrie Parker, both 16, were treated at the hospital for minor injuries and released. Parker suffered a bruised forehead.

The passengers told police they had been joking, laughing and listening to music as they traveled down Centennial Parkway near Fort Apache Road about 1:40 p.m.

"Before it left the roadway, a witness said that the vehicle appeared to weave out of its travel lane," Metro Sgt. Tracy McDonald said.

The vehicle drifted off the roadway and the driver tried to return to the roadway, sending the Jeep into a culvert where it rolled, landed on its tires and traveled another 900 feet through the desert before crashing into a block wall along Regena Street, just west of Campbell Drive, police said.

Jackie Burton wasn't wearing a seat belt, Holland said, and it's unclear if the others were.

Parker said he and Josserand were wearing their seat belts. Parker said he remembered little about what happened after the vehicle started to swerve.

"I was knocked out," Parker said. "I don't remember anything after the crash."

Parker said he had known Burton for about three years.

"He is a nice kid, got good grades and he doesn't smoke or drink," Parker said.

Parker said the crash was yet another reminder, however, that teen drivers need to remember to pay attention to their driving.

"Most students don't think about it, but they need to," he said.

Barbara Jackson, Parker's grandmother, said it was a miracle no one was killed in the accident.

"We all have had a wake-up call," Jackson said.

She said that if any of them had been killed or more seriously injured, the survivors would have been devastated.

"All of them are basketball players. They're like brothers," she said.

Josserand's sister, Stephanie, said the boys loved to play basketball together after school and on weekends.

Centennial basketball coach Greg Bohls said Burton is "just an exceptional hard worker, just a great kid."

"I'm just glad he's alive, to be honest with you. He's an extremely hard worker. He's our MVP (most valuable player) this year. That big heart he plays with is what's getting him through this."

Fellow students, friends and family members arrived at the hospital for hours after the accident.

School district officials said Wednesday that counselors would be available at the school today to talk with students.

Centennial Principal Gary Valazquez offered the families sympathy in the hospital's waiting room Wednesday.

"We've had our share of tragedy up there," Valazquez said. "I'm sure glad this wasn't one of them."

For some some members of the Centennial community, Wednesday's after-school crash made them recall a fatal traffic collision involving students in a Jeep two years ago.

In August 2002 Ryan Sneed, a junior at Centennial, ran a stop sign about a mile from the northwest valley campus in his Jeep Cherokee and struck a passing tractor-trailer. Sneed, 16, was killed. His younger sister and three of her friends, all passengers in the Jeep, were injured. Sneed had received his driver's license nine days earlier.

The Nevada Legislature is considering a bill that would toughen the laws on young people under 18 getting driver's licenses.

Thirty-five other states have graduated driver's licensing laws, said Delise Sartini, spokeswoman for Moms on a Mission in Las Vegas and one of the advocates for the proposed change in licensing laws.

Inexperience and risk-taking are among the elements that lead to increased accidents of young drivers, she said.