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5 Colorado teenagers killed after car goes off cliff, authorities say
Thao Nguyen
Five teenage boys were killed after the vehicle they were riding in drove off a roadway and plunged down a steep hillside in a Colorado neighborhood over the weekend, authorities said.
The crash occurred late Aug. 8 in a residential area of Grand Junction, a city located in Colorado’s Western Slope region, according to the Mesa County Coroner’s Office. Local police said first responders were dispatched at about 7:45 a.m. local time on Aug. 9 after receiving a report of a vehicle that had gone over the edge of a cliff in the neighborhood.
When emergency crews arrived, they found a crashed vehicle on the hillside below the roadway and five occupants dead at the scene, the Grand Junction Police Department said in a news release.
Investigators believe the vehicle was traveling south “when it veered off the roadway and down the steep incline of the hillside,” according to police. Speed is being examined as a possible factor in the crash, which remains under investigation.
In a news release on Aug. 10, the coroner’s office said all five occupants were 17-year-old boys who lived in Grand Junction. The coroner’s office said it does not publicly release the names of minors under its policy.
Seat belts worn by three occupants
Personnel from the Grand Junction Fire Department, Mesa County Search and Rescue, the Grand Junction Police Department and the Mesa County Coroner’s Office worked together to recover the victims from the crash site, police said.
Authorities have not released additional details about what caused the vehicle to leave the roadway.
According to the coroner’s office, three of the occupants, including the driver and front seat passenger, were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash. Two occupants who were not wearing seat belts were ejected from the vehicle.
The coroner’s office said the autopsies were completed and found that the teens died from injuries sustained in the crash.
“The Grand Junction Police Department recognizes that incidents like this can have a profound impact on families, friends, and the broader community,” police said in the news release. “We encourage anyone in need of support to reach out to someone they trust or contact the GJPD Victim Services Unit for available resources.”
Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/
