6 high school students killed in Oklahoma crash with semitruck

6 high school students killed in Oklahoma crash with semitruck

Six Oklahoma high school students who were headed off campus for their lunch break were killed Tuesday after their car collided with a semitruck, authorities said.

Sarah Stewart, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, said the students — all girls — died after a crash between their small passenger vehicle and the truck in Tishomingo at 12:30 p.m.

They were between the ages of 15 and 17, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

The names of the dead teenagers were not released, but five of the six victims were from Tishomingo, a town of about 3,000 in the south-central part of Oklahoma that is 120 miles north of Dallas. They included two 17-year-olds and three 15-year-olds. A 16-year-old girl was driving a Chevrolet Spark. Her hometown is Connerville, the highway patrol said.

Only the driver in the vehicle and a front-seat passenger wore seat belts. Four of the victims were pronounced dead on the scene, according to the highway patrol.

The driver of the semitruck was identified as Valendon Burton, 51, of Burneyville. He was not injured. Burton was wearing a seat belt, the highway patrol said.

Holt was active in Future Farmers of America and enjoyed showing off her prize hogs, the Mail reported.

All six teenage girls who died instantly when semitrailer slammed into their sedan as they made left turn on highway

The collision on Tuesday killed all six girls as their vehicle was attempting to turn onto U.S. 377
The driver was 16 years old, three of the other girls were 15 and the other two passengers were both 17  
Their 2015 Chevy Spark and the semi-truck collided around 12.19pm Tuesday near Tishomingo

Austin, who was active in Future Farmers of America and enjoyed showing her prize hogs, was confirmed as another victim of the crash by relative Natalie Houston. 'She was a gorgeous intelligent young lady taken way to soon for reasons unknown to me,' Houston wrote on Facebook.

The two vehicles collided around 12.19pm on Tuesday at the intersection of U.S. 377 and Oklahoma 22 in Tishomingo, a rural city of about 3,000 located about 115 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.

Troopers said the girls' vehicle was traveling eastbound on Oklahoma 22 and stopped at a stop sign at the intersection of U.S. 377 just before 12:30 p.m.
Burton was also a volunteer firefighter and posted recently about the situation in Ukraine, adding that he was praying for a speedy resolution to the conflict

Burton was also a volunteer firefighter and posted recently about the situation in Ukraine, adding that he was praying for a speedy resolution to the conflict

OHP Trooper Shelby Humphrey said Tuesday night that the girls attempted to turn at the intersection, which maps show is at the end of a 90-degree curve of U.S. 377 from east to south.

The girls' car was struck by the semi which was approaching from the east on U.S. 377, KXII-TV reported.

The force of the crash moved the car about approximately 300 feet from the intersection, KXII-TV reported, leaving it in a mangled mess with doors and ripped off.

According to the crash report released by OHP on Wednesday morning, the circumstances of the wreck remain under investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team, according to NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson.

While what led to the crash is unknown, it highlighted concerns of teenagers carrying carloads of other young passengers.

'Just adding a single passenger under age 21 increases the risk of crashing by 44 percent' when the driver is a teen, said William Van Tassel with AAA´s national office.

'One of the main concerns and risks of having multiple teenagers in a car is the distractions that come with that,' Van Tassel said.

'If one of the passengers is over 35 (the risk) goes down by 62 percent. That implies teens can drive safely when there´s an adult in the car,' Van Tassel told The Associated Press.

The crash report, released Wednesday morning, said the circumstances of the wreck remained under investigation.

Only the 16-year-old driver and front-seat passenger were wearing seat belts when the 2015 Chevrolet Spark collided with the truck, according to the Highway Patrol.

Thu, May 5, 2022, 1:20 PM

TISHOMINGO, Okla. (AP) — The teenage driver of a small car that collided with a large truck in Oklahoma, killing all six occupants in the car, tested negative for alcohol but positive for cannabis after her death, according to a preliminary report released Thursday.

The teens were on a school lunch break in a Chevrolet Spark that is designed to carry four passengers when the collision happened in March in Tishomingo, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Oklahoma City. The driver and all five passengers died in the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board also said the 16-year-old driver had been issued an intermediate driver's license six months before the crash. Under that license, she was only legally permitted to have one passenger from outside her household unless there was someone who was at least 21 years old in the car.

According to the report, the teen driver turned left at a stop sign when her car was struck by an oncoming truck. The truck's driver was not injured and tested negative for alcohol and drugs, the NTSB report said.