Teen killed in crash after party

KALAMA, Wash. – A sport-utility vehicle carrying 10 young people overturned after an apparent drinking party, leaving one teenager dead and the driver likely facing vehicular homicide and other charges, authorities said.

Candice Pennington-Carter, 18, of Kalama, died shortly after the crash early Sunday morning on the winding Kalama River Road about 10 miles off Interstate 5, Cowlitz County sheriff’s deputies said.

Boone Bergsma, 20, of Kalama, driver of the Ford Explorer, was in serious condition at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. Prosecutors will likely be asked to charge him with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, sheriff’s Capt. Mark Nelson said.

Witnesses said the group, ranging in age from 16 to 20, had just left a drinking party in the woods and described the SUV as going as fast as 55 mph in a 35 mph zone, Nelson said.

“It’s an absolute senseless tragedy,” he said. “When you start involving alcohol and driving, gosh, it’s playing Russian roulette.”

Several passengers were released after being treated for minor injuries at St. John Medical Center in Longview. No one in the SUV is believed to have been wearing a seat belt, investigators said.

Pennington-Carter was flung from the vehicle, which may have rolled onto her, and Bergsma also was partially ejected, deputies said.