Honor Roll Student Rollover
elizabeth
Tragedy ends night of fun for 8 young friends in van
3 of the youths are dead after driver loses control on a dark road
July 30, 2003
BY MARYANNE GEORGE AND SHERYL JAMES
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
They were eight friends heading out on a beautiful summer night to
wrap a friend's house in toilet paper as a practical joke.
But as they sped south from the scene down Hogback Road in Handy
Township about 11 p.m. Monday, David Keniston lost control of his
family's minivan.
The van left the unlit gravel road and struck several trees as it
careened out of control for nearly 50 yards.
David, 16, of Fowlerville and Timothy Zumbach, 15, a former
Fowlerville resident who was visiting from Gladwin, were killed on
impact, pinned by trees that crushed the front of the 1996 Oldsmobile
Silhouette, according to Livingston County Undersheriff Bob Bezotte.
Kari Cairns, 13, of Howell Township, also was killed instantly.
Five other youths, including Keniston's brother Zachary and sister
Margrette, both 14, were taken by ambulance or helicopter to three
hospitals in a dramatic midnight rescue effort orchestrated by shaken
neighbors, who directed emergency workers to the crash scene and a
private landing field with their headlights.
Kristin Dombrowski, 18, who had just graduated from Fowlerville High
School, where David Keniston was to be a junior, heard the impact as
the van crashed into the trees on her property. She and her father,
Livingston County Sheriff's Detective Bob Dombrowski, rushed to the
scene.
"It was pitch black," Kristin Dombrowski said. "You could hear the car
horn, the radio going and the screaming. Two of the boys managed to
get out. They were screaming."
Dombrowski helped get them to the side of the road. Her father called
EMS, then went to the vehicle.
"I looked down," Kristen Dombrowski said. "I'll never forget it -- I
saw these two little hands."
Zachary Keniston and Kenneth Clontz, 15, both ninth-graders at
Fowlerville Junior High School, either were thrown out of the van or
scrambled out of it onto the road and began screaming for help,
according to witnesses and police.
"There's dead people in there," they told Donna Cooper, who lives near
the crash site. "We were afraid we were going to be killed."
Cooper's husband, Ron, a retired Livingston County Sheriff's detective
who uses a wheelchair, called emergency workers and gave them
permission to use his private airstrip to land medical helicopters.
As his wife illuminated the crash site with her car's headlights, Ron
Cooper organized five vehicles to light the airstrip. He used his van
to light the emergency workers' path between the crash and the rescue
vehicles. Other neighbors pitched in.
"It was a real neighborhood team effort," Ron Cooper said. Zachary and
Margrette Keniston were taken by ambulance to Sparrow Hospital in
Lansing. Officials there declined to release information about the
teens' condition, at the family's request.
Clontz of Fowlerville and Alli Meyer, 12, of Howell Township were
airlifted to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.
Clontz was discharged Tuesday afternoon.
Corrine Clontz said her grandson suffered a broken hand and had glass
fragments in his back.
"He was one of the lucky ones," she said.
Meyer was listed in fair condition at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital,
according to spokeswoman Kara Gavin.
Julie Jones, 14 of Webberville was airlifted to St. Joseph Mercy
Health System in Superior Township and listed in critical condition
Tuesday afternoon, according to hospital spokeswoman Lesia Golden.
Bezotte said David Keniston, who had been driving for about four
months, failed to slow down as he approached a curve in the dark
gravel road, just east of Fowlerville.
The speed limit on the road is 55 m.p.h., but the curve is marked by
yellow signs and the speed there is reduced to 35 m.p.h.
Alcohol was not a factor in the accident, but the seven-passenger
minivan was carrying eight passengers, Bezotte said. Keniston and
Zumbach, in the front seats, were wearing seat belts, and the air bags
on the van deployed.
The van also had three center seats and two back seats. Late Tuesday,
police said they had not determined where the other five youths were
sitting. But witnesses who helped with the rescue effort said it
appeared the four girls were seated in the middle, and the two
surviving boys, Zachary Keniston and Kenneth Clontz, were in the back.
"He was driving too fast for conditions. There were no skid marks,"
Bezotte said. "It was a gravel road with narrow shoulders and lots of
trees. Something distracted him."
The dome light was on after the crash, which may indicate it was on
before the crash, according to witnesses and police.
David Keniston had a Level 2 license, meaning the only restriction he
had was that he couldn't drive between midnight and 5 a.m., according
to Bezotte.
Bezotte described David Keniston as "one of the good kids, a good
student. . . .
"They were out having innocent fun," he said. "But he did something
incredibly stupid."
After leaving the road, the vehicle traveled between two trees,
flipped on its side and then slid 40 to 50 yards, knocking down
several trees, Bezotte said.
The front of the white van was flattened, but three stickers on the
rear bumper bragged that the family had honor roll students at
Fowlerville senior and junior high schools.
Ed Alverson, superintendent at the 3,200-student Fowlerville Community
School district, said counselors were being contacted at both the
senior high and junior high to offer grief counseling.
"We're a small, close-knit community," he said. "All the parents know
each other and they take this as a personal loss."
Winnie
"elizabeth" <efra...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d704555b.03073...@posting.google.com...
> http://www.freep.com/news/metro/crash30_20030730.htm
> Tragedy ends night of fun for 8 young friends in van
>
> 3 of the youths are dead after driver loses control on a dark road
> July 30, 2003
> BY MARYANNE GEORGE AND SHERYL JAMES
> FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
>
> They were eight friends heading out on a beautiful summer night to
> wrap a friend's house in toilet paper as a practical joke.
Considering these were mid-teens it was probably a friend's *parents'* house
they were going to mess with. Karma.
Winnie
Jason G
>http://www.freep.com/news/metro/crash30_20030730.htm
>Tragedy ends night of fun for 8 young friends in van
>
>3 of the youths are dead after driver loses control on a dark road
Yeah, so? Some teens die in a car accident. Tragic for their families and
friends, but why on earth do you think we would care about this, Liddy?
--
Jason G
Meet the people your mother always warned you about.
Attend the Fourth Annual Childfree Beach Party!
August 16th, 2003, Oceanside, California. E-mail for details.
sydenhams chorea
news:bga68...@enews1.newsguy.com...
> Yeah, so? Some teens die in a car accident. Tragic for their families
and
> friends, but why on earth do you think we would care about this, Liddy?
'Cause you all enjoy reading about the death of anyone under 25?
Dole boy.
Shashay Doofray
usually wind up taking out some innocent bastard on his way to work (or the
bowling alley). At least this time, they just killed themselves (and
eachother) and left innocent people alone. Bravo.
SD
-----
Get a complimentary 2 night stay in Las Vegas, find
out how at http://www.ironhorsetravel.com
Matthew Mazerowski
> 'Cause you all enjoy reading about the death of anyone under 25?
>
>
> Dole boy.
Like you are any better. You read it too.
Pot kettle black.
Moron.
Yankee Dame
families and friends, but why on earth do you think we would care about
this, Liddy?
--
Jason G
The rape fantasies got old.
Yank
