NE - 4 Teenage Girls Die in Fiery Single Vehicle Automobile Crash, 5th Burned, Gretna, 17 June 2019

[PastTense]

"There were long, comforting hugs. Muffled sobs and shared boxes of tissues. And prayers that ached for four teenage girls who died in a car crash Monday night and a fifth, sole survivor hospitalized with burns.

Hundreds packed the pews Tuesday night at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Gretna for a memorial service that aimed to provide some small measure of solace to a grieving community.

“No words can totally comfort us, no words can totally explain such a tragedy,” said the Rev. Matthew Gutowski, the church’s pastor.

Gretna students, parents and others from this community of 5,000 woke up to horrifying and heartbreaking news Tuesday morning: Five teenagers from Gretna High School had been involved in a fiery and deadly car crash in Sarpy County late Monday night.

Four girls died at the scene. A fifth is being treated at a burn unit in a Lincoln hospital. All are believed to be 15 or 16 years old."
'There's a real heaviness ... over the city of Gretna': Community mourns deaths of 4 teens in crash

Speed is believed to have played a role in the crash:
Gretna crash victims identified: 'Our collective heart in our community is shattered'

 

[Gardenista]

PC from an hour ago

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=407160479884199

 

[PastTense]

Gretna crash victims loved dance, cheerleading and soccer

"Thursday, authorities released the names of the four Gretna teenagers who died in this week’s horrible car crash. They were active in the school community, putting in the hours on soccer, volleyball or dance teams, and earned the good grades needed to join the National Honor Society."
Gretna crash victims loved dance, cheerleading and soccer

 

[Tripod]

Tears. What beautiful young girls they all were. Prayers for healing for the surviving victim, and all of those families.

 

[PrairieWind]

wow, what a horrific tragedy! I am praying for the severely injured girl. I can't imagine what she is going through. I wonder if they have told her that her friends are all gone.

 

[Tripod]

wow, what a horrific tragedy! I am praying for the severely injured girl. I can't imagine what she is going through. I wonder if they have told her that her friends are all gone.

Yes, she was told on Wednesday. If you scroll down through the linked article, there's a mention that she knows now and is grieving.

 

[Snick1946]

It sounds to me that their car smashed into the guard rail and that the gas tank may have been pierced. That would explain the fire. That area is quite a ways away from Gretna where they lived and if they were eastbound one wonders where they were going. I have seen speculation they were run off the road. We'll likely never know. Maybe in the coming weeks accident investigators can tell us more. Such a tragedy.

 

[LadyL]

so sad

 

[Snick1946]

Not sure if this will work but I will post a link to the Google Earth view of the location of this accident. There is utterly nothing around there. It appears no street lights, few houses. It would look to me the car left the road possibly air borne and rolled after being thrown by the guard rail. In trying to imagine what could have happened it occurs to me they could have been struck by another car.

Google Maps

It'd be interesting to speculate if that area has the reputation of a place teens go to race. There may well have been another car involved. Accident investigators are probably looking at this.

 

[PastTense]

Racing is something you associate a lot more with teenage boys than teenage girls.

I think it was just a combination of going to fast, not paying enough attention to the road (laughing and joking with her friends), and inexperience driving (at 16 years old she probably had had her drivers license for only a few months--although she might have had a learners permit for up to a year).

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

The driver was only 16 years old? Oh my, I missed that.

 

[PastTense]

All the girls were 15 to 16 years old.

 

[StarrChance]

So tragic, here in Australia we introduced a rule for new young drivers (17 years to get p plate) , I think any restrictions to keep young drivers safe is worth while.

P1 drivers under the age of 25 can only carry 1 passenger under the age of 21 between 11pm and 5am (there are some exemptions). L and P plates have to be attached to the OUTSIDE of the car – you can't stick the plates on the inside of your window. Extensions to P2 licences when suspended for unsafe driving.Nov 15, 2017

 

[PrairieWind]

So tragic, here in Australia we introduced a rule for new young drivers (17 years to get p plate) , I think any restrictions to keep young drivers safe is worth while.

P1 drivers under the age of 25 can only carry 1 passenger under the age of 21 between 11pm and 5am (there are some exemptions). L and P plates have to be attached to the OUTSIDE of the car – you can't stick the plates on the inside of your window. Extensions to P2 licences when suspended for unsafe driving.Nov 15, 2017

A lot of states, mine included, have graduated/restricted licenses for minors. In my state a 16 year old can only have one passenger unless it is immediate family. I don't know about Nebraska. My guess here is that isn't another car involved, and this was just a very inexperienced driver, driving too fast, with a lot of distractions, and she just lost control. It happens all too often.

 

[cdn6002]

Sarpy county is out there. There are great life flight crews in this part of the country but they’ve got to know that there are patients to collect. I didn’t read closely enough to see how long it took for first responders to arrive in this case.
Added by me: it looked like passerby called it in as brush fire 10 minutes after it happened. Ugh.

 

[PastTense]

"When tragedy strikes, schools often face a tough dilemma: how to honor students who are mourned and missed without glorifying death or extending the grieving process.

After four teenagers died last week in a one-car crash, the Gretna Public Schools district is trying to find that delicate balance.

Student-made memorials have cropped up in the parking lot at Gretna High School, where the four girls had just finished their sophomore year. They were Abby Barth, 16, Alex Minardi, 15, Kloe Odermatt, 16, and Addisyn Pfeifer, 16. A fifth girl, Roan Brandon, 15, survived the crash with serious burns."
After fatal crash, Gretna students, parents, school officials grapple with how to grieve

 

[musicaljoke]

A lot of states, mine included, have graduated/restricted licenses for minors. In my state a 16 year old can only have one passenger unless it is immediate family. I don't know about Nebraska. My guess here is that isn't another car involved, and this was just a very inexperienced driver, driving too fast, with a lot of distractions, and she just lost control. It happens all too often.

https://dmv.nebraska.gov/sites/dmv.nebraska.gov/files/doc/manuals/engdrivermanual.pdf

A driver can get a Provisional Operators Permit at age 16. During the first six months of the POP, the holder can only operate a motor vehicle with no more than one passenger who is not an immediate family member and who is under nineteen years of age.

When I do look at the ages of these girls, there appears to be a huge elephant in the room. What a horrible tragedy.

 

[rosesfromangels]

Someone please tell me the surviving girl isn't the driver?
Anyone know her current condition?
This is just heartbreaking

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

No, she wasn’t the driver, blessedly. Sadly the driver passed away. I haven’t heard anything about the survivor’s condition.

 

[bubblepup]

Gretna is small -- about 4400 -- and about 20 miles SW of Omaha.