Teen hospitalized after fall from car
A teenage girl was fighting for her life Thursday after falling off a moving car driven by another teenager who may now face charges.
The black Geo hatchback was heading west on 21st Avenue in Spokane Valley early Thursday afternoon when Gene Harvey saw it from his perch on a nearby home where he was putting on a new roof.
“We saw them kind of speeding down the hill with two girls on the back,” Harvey said. The girls were lying flat on the glass of the hatchback, facing backward, and sitting on the rear spoiler trying to hang on, he said. As the car turned south onto Union, one of the girls fell off.
“She turned the corner and fell off the car,” said Sasha Davison, 14. “I was on the trunk with her. She fell off, and I didn’t.”
The injured girl, Amaryssa Byers, a student at Bowdish Junior High, was taken to Deaconess Medical Center by ambulance, where she was listed in critical condition.
Emergency responders “didn’t work on her much,” said Lt. Jim Finke of the Spokane Valley Police Department. “They just pretty much scooped her up and put her in the ambulance.”
Police identified the driver as Jessica A. Napier, 16. Napier attends University High School.
There were four girls inside the car, including Napier, and two riding on the back, said Cpl. Tom Henderson. All lived in the neighborhood where the accident occurred and were between the ages of 14 and 16. “The girls were getting a ride to Terrace View Park,” Henderson said. “They were holding on to the fin on the back.”
Napier and one of the passengers left the scene, while two other girls stayed and called 911 for help, Police spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan wrote in a press release. The two girls gave Napier’s cell-phone number to Detective Roger Knight, who called Napier; she then returned to the scene with her mother.
“She was devastated” by the accident, Henderson said.
Napier has an intermediate driver’s license that restricts passengers under the age of 20 to immediate family members only, Henderson said, and she has only been licensed for 2 1/2 months.
Henderson said he doesn’t know how fast the car was going. The speed limit in the area is 25 miles per hour. “The girls in the car didn’t feel the speed was excessive,” he said.
Henderson pointed out that someone hitting the pavement at only 10 miles per hour could be seriously injured. “It’s no different than hitting a brick wall.”
Napier was released to her mother. Henderson said more investigation is necessary before police decide what to charge her with. Police say possible charges range from reckless driving to vehicular assault, a felony.
Police officer Joe Bonin said he’s stopped a lot of young drivers with intermediate licenses who violate the law by carrying passengers. The fine for that offense is $101.
“They can lose their licenses over it once they get two tickets,” Bonin said.