[e92phreak]

RIP. May it show others the dangers of this combination.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...cal&id=6070078
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/ve...784,full.story (Check this one out)

From ABC7.com:
4/9/2008
NEWBURY PARK (KABC) -- A 17-year-old driver was killed and three other teens were injured, one critically, in a solo-vehicle rollover crash on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

Authorities waited for daylight before closely examining evidence at the crash site. The westbound side of PCH at Broad Beach Road was shut down all morning after Tuesday night's fatal rollover involving five teenagers.

Click in the Eyewitness News story window above to watch Rob Hayes' report from the Newbury Park High School.

Deputies say four of the five teens in the car are students at Newbury Park High School, including the 17-year-old driver Cody Murphy, who was killed in the crash.

Murphy was a popular football player at Newbury Park High.

The CHP says the teenager, driving a Subaru Impreza, was speeding down PCH when he lost control of the vehicle, flipping it several times. The vehicle landed on its roof, killing Murphy and critically injuring a 17-year-old female passenger who was not wearing a seat belt.

Domonique Cruz says she was suppose to go to the concert with the five kids, but decided to stay home at the last minute. She found out about the wreck Tuesday night. She says the shock of what happened has left the entire student body stunned.

"Our whole school is effected and everyone is so sad. It effects everyone around you and people do not realize it," said Domonique Cruz, student.

"Teenagers all have a tendency as part of their development to think that they are infallible. This shock today has helped them realize that none of us are infallible," said Athol Wong, principal.

Deputies say the surviving passengers admitted they'd all been drinking Tuesday night, right up until the time they sped down PCH.

"Apparently these five teenagers were at a concert in Hollywood last night, had a few drinks there, and then went on to the Santa Monica Pier, where again they consumed more alcohol," said Sgt. Brooks.

The LA County Sheriff's Department says that an empty bottle of liquor was found in the car along with an empty bottle of medical marijuana.

Three passengers were injured in the crash. The 17-year-old girl was taken to UCLA Medical Center in critical condition with a head injury, and two boys were also taken to UCLA Medical Center for treatment of hip injuries. Another passenger was treated at the scene and released.

News of the fatality spread quickly at Newbury Park High School. Thad Wolff got a text message from his 17-year-old daughter, who's a student at Newbury Park, about what happened.

"It sounds like maybe alcohol was involved and, you know, so again a lesson learned to other children at school that hopefully they won't fall in that same sort of situation," said Wolff.

Deputies say it's just another tragic reminder of how deadly drinking and driving can be.

"We pound it into these kids all the time and so here we go, we're going to have four seniors that are graduating and one that never will," said Sgt. Brooks.

Eyewitness News reporters Rob Hayes and Lisa Hernandez contributed to this report.

From LATimes.com:
4/10/2008
Newbury Park High students apparently had been drinking before the rollover on Pacific Coast Highway, authorities say.
By Catherine Saillant and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
April 10, 2008
Students at Newbury Park High School had been preparing to stage a dramatic mock car crash as a cautionary tale about the hazards of drinking and driving as prom and graduation season approaches.

Then real life intervened.

Late Tuesday, a popular 17-year-old football player was killed and three classmates were seriously injured in a car crash on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu after a night of partying that authorities said involved alcohol. A fourth passenger suffered minor injuries.

Cody James Murphy, a junior who was a running back on the varsity football team, had been drinking and was driving the car that rolled over and crashed, authorities said.

On Wednesday, word about the accident spread fast at the Ventura County campus.

"You can just see people in groups crying and in hysterics," said junior Brenna Fitzpatrick, 16. "The biggest football player at our school was in tears."

Survivors told investigators that they had been drinking during a night of partying in Los Angeles. Investigators found a large, empty bottle of Jagermeister and, on the floor of the car, a glass pipe and a pill bottle containing medical marijuana.

Tests to determine whether Murphy was legally intoxicated are pending. Investigators said the teens apparently were not wearing seat belts in the 10 p.m. crash.

For Newbury Park High Principal Athol Wong, the pall on the campus where all five students attended had a sad irony.

The school had planned its mock car crash as part of a program called "Every 15 Minutes," Wong said.

One of the student actors scheduled to take part in the two-day event was among those critically injured in the single-car crash, Wong said.

On Wednesday, friends of a 17-year-old girl, the only senior in the group, said she was fighting for her life at UCLA Medical Center.

"It's just tragic," Wong said. "It's a program that stages exactly what happened."

Wong said the school would be canceling the demonstration this year. But she and other educators, along with law enforcement officials, say this week's tragedy underscores a message they have for years been trying to pound into high school students' heads.

Mario Contini, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, said the message is simple: Don't drink and drive.

"The sad part is that this is the end of one boy's life and a huge interruption in the lives of so many wonderful kids," he said. "And it is so unnecessary."

Investigators called to the scene could smell alcohol on Murphy's body and on the passengers: three 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old, said Sgt. Philip Brooks of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The names of the passengers were not released because they are minors.

The teens told investigators that they went to see a hip-hop group, Living Legends, play at Amoeba Music on Sunset Boulevard, but they showed up late and missed the show. So the group headed to the Santa Monica Pier, where they told investigators that they drank from a bottle of Jagermeister.

Murphy was driving a 2007 Subaru Impreza that belonged to the parents of one of his male passengers, Brooks said.

As Murphy drove north on Pacific Coast Highway, he lost control in the 32000 block just north of Broad Beach Road, veered to the right into a mountainside and the car flipped end-over-end, coming to rest upside down, Brooks said.

The crash shut down PCH overnight and for several hours Wednesday morning as crews cleared debris. A skateboard, a Dodgers cap, tennis shoes and other clothing littered the road. Skid marks were visible on a nearby embankment.

One of the male passengers, from Newbury Park, was treated at the scene and released. The other three were taken to UCLA Medical Center, where two males, also from Newbury Park, were being treated. One had a fractured spine and the other had a ruptured bladder and a broken pelvis, said Jim McGlashen, a friend of the Murphy family. The youths were in stable condition, investigators said.

The only girl in the car, a Camarillo resident, suffered head trauma and was in critical condition, Brooks said.

McGlashen said he had been receiving updates all day from friends and relatives who accompanied the other three teens to the hospital.

"We're just hoping that the poor girl who was injured pulls through," he said.

McGlashen, who drove Murphy's parents to the crash scene, said he had known the boy since he was a first-grader, had coached him in Pop Warner football and remembered him as an outgoing teenager with good grades.

Murphy played lead guitar in a friend's garage band and planned to attend San Diego State with McGlashen's son, Ryan.

Murphy also ran track, liked to surf and, a couple of years ago, developed his own sportswear, Ryan McGlashen said, adding that he and Murphy were close friends.

"He was funny, outgoing and loud," Ryan McGlashen said. "He loved rock, reggae, all kinds of music . . . He was like a brother to me."

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Murphy called Ryan McGlashen to invite him to see a band with the other teens. But McGlashen had a sore throat and a 102 temperature, so he didn't go with the group. Otherwise, he would have been in the car.

"By the grace of God, he wasn't," his father said.

Brooks, a 25-year veteran of the Sheriff's Department, said he often spoke to high school students and their parents about drunk driving.

He said he has noticed the effort schools have made to deter students from drinking at this time of year. More high schools are offering nonalcoholic after-prom parties and sponsoring programs to combat drunk driving, Brooks said.

But parents should still talk to their children about drunk driving and review their options, Brooks said. Let them know that if they do get drunk, they can always call home for a ride, he said.

"You have to talk to your kids and have a plan," he said.

Larry Berlin, dean of students at Newbury Park High, said "Every 15 Minutes" is part of a health class curriculum that takes place each spring. The program refers to statistics showing that every 15 minutes someone dies from a crash involving alcohol.

"We try to get the students as early as we can," he said, adding that administrators probably will meet with law enforcement officials to discuss expanding drunk driving outreach to students in the wake of the crash.

catherine.saillant @latimes.com

molly.hennessy-fiske @latimes.com

Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.

[FirstClass]

Darwinism. As much as I wish nobody had died, at least it was the driver. Though the rest of them are almost as stupid for riding with him.

[e92phreak]

Was a popular kid.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...iendid=8412167

really sucks. i especially hate it when they have a myspace and you read all the comments... really touches you.

i dont get how hard it is to put on your seatbelt either. its already a habit for me - i cant even move a yard without putting on my seatbelt.

drinking and driving will never stop

[e92phreak]

Originally Posted by nico335

really sucks. i especially hate it when they have a myspace and you read all the comments... really touches you.

i dont get how hard it is to put on your seatbelt either. its already a habit for me - i cant even move a yard without putting on my seatbelt.

drinking and driving will never stop

Yeah... sucks when you read the comments.

Also, in CA, isn't it a law that you cannot transport others (unless 25 and older or a sibling) when you have a provisional license (under 18 license)? :

[aznshrek88]

I wish i had the balls to pull a stunt like that =/

[truong321]

i thought it was one year after receiving provisional license.

[ChineseGuy]

Originally Posted by nico335

i dont get how hard it is to put on your seatbelt either. its already a habit for me - i cant even move a yard without putting on my seatbelt.

Just because of the beeping sounds...

People are used to not wearing seat belts, because they use to drive cars without that seatbelt-beeping technology. I remember my dad use to take off his seatbelts when he enters the parking lot, and he would live with the 3 minutes of beeping as long as there's nothing strapped around his shoulders.

But to the OP, most of the time, it doesn't take speed or alcohol to end up as tragedy. 17 yr. old + alochol OR 17 old + speed will eventually end up in tragedy.

Originally Posted by ChineseGuy

Just because of the beeping sounds...

People are used to not wearing seat belts, because they use to drive cars without that seatbelt-beeping technology. I remember my dad use to take off his seatbelts when he enters the parking lot, and he would live with the 3 minutes of beeping as long as there's nothing strapped around his shoulders.

But to the OP, most of the time, it doesn't take speed or alcohol to end up as tragedy. 17 yr. old + alochol OR 17 old + speed will eventually end up in tragedy.

even without the sounds. i guess it was because my mom got pissed when i would take it off or not put it on when i was a kid. i think thats how my uncle died so thats why she was strict about it which i understand and thank her.

with older people its reasonable but come on a 17 year old? there shouldnt be an excuse for someone so young

Originally Posted by e92phreak

Yeah... sucks when you read the comments.

Also, in CA, isn't it a law that you cannot transport others (unless 25 and older or a sibling) when you have a provisional license (under 18 license)? :

yeah you're not legally supposed to until its been a year since you've had your license. A LOT of teenagers break this rule though. i think theres a few acceptions though like carpooling to school and stuff.

[ChineseGuy]

Originally Posted by nico335

even without the sounds. i guess it was because my mom got pissed when i would take it off or not put it on when i was a kid. i think thats how my uncle died so thats why she was strict about it which i understand and thank her.

with older people its reasonable but come on a 17 year old? there shouldnt be an excuse for someone so young

I started my seat-belt habit when i got nailed 2 times by the cops for not wearing seat-belt...

[Couch]

Originally Posted by nico335

i dont get how hard it is to put on your seatbelt either. its already a habit for me - i cant even move a yard without putting on my seatbelt.

I don't get it either. I've given up on telling my friends to put their seatbelts on in their own damn vehicles. They always have some bullshit excuse, like "We're just going a few miles up the road." And now one of my friends has also started riding his motorcycle without a helmet on occasion.

I'm just praying I never get "that" call.

[truong321]

Today my school closed out the entire road infront to put on an assembly which the city is involved in. The program is called "every 15 minutes" and its pretty intense, showing a real-like DUI accident and they had abulances and police, etc. I also heard this high school was going to have this program for their school.

[ironjw]

R.I.P man!!

[Hawkeye]

too bad the stupid decision of a 17 year old ended his life. At least his passengers survived.

Comments on his myspace are touching.

[Kiemyster]

i have no sympathy for him. i have no sympathy for todays society either. but i do feel bad that he was never better educated about drugs and alcohol. if theres any one to blame, its not him, its society and government.

pshh, society sais: sure! its ok to get piss drunk, create a riot, become a public newsense, vomit on the streets/on others, become a pain in the ass, and drive drunk and get killed.... but to smoke a blunt and just get relaxed/mellow! youve gotta be CrAzY!!!!!

every hour quite a few lives are claimed by drunk drivers. its a sad reality of the cicle jerk of life. but society will pick up the peices and move on. its always worked like that.

[e92phreak]

Just read in the LA Times that it wasn't even the driver's car! It was a passenger's parent's car.

[e92phreak]

Updated with LATimes link.

Can't believe that the school was to put on a mock crash scene as part of "Every Fifteen Minutes" and one of the critically injured teens was to be a part of it *sigh*...