Conifer Crash

Conifer student gets clipped, destroying the front of the car

Debris+decorates+the+intersection+at+Highway+73+and+the+Conifer+High+School+driveway+on+the+morning+of+Thursday%2C+March+2%2C+after+an+accident+involving+a+student+and+an+unidentified+male+driving+a+truck+on+Hwy+73.++

Photo by Mackenzie Orr

Debris decorates the intersection at Highway 73 and the Conifer High School driveway on the morning of Thursday, March 2, after an accident involving a student and an unidentified male driving a truck on Hwy 73.

On Thursday, March 2, before school started,a car accident and a trip to the ER interrupted one student’s morning commute.  

The seventeen year old female student driving a white 2016 Kia Forte turned left into the school driveway when a grey Ram truck hit her. Her car then spun around until she stopped and was facing toward Staples and O’Reilly’s Auto Parts. The truck, which was coming from Evergreen, went through the light, hit the student’s car,  hit the light post on the south side of the Conifer driveway, and went partially into the ditch.

Photo by Mackenzie Orr
Fluid stains the asphalt where a Conifer student’s car was involved in a car accident on Thursday morning of March 2.  “The front of her car, because he drove over it, is gone.  All the airbags went off and she’s really lucky,” Jodee Kesten, an EMT and Conifer parent, said.

The student felt okay but went to the ER for an evaluation of her right arm and left leg. All of the airbags in her car deployed, including the one in the steering wheel, hitting her in the chest. The other driver’s car drove over the top of the student’s car, crumpling the entire front portion of her car. The truck had a displaced front axle.

EMT and Conifer parent Jodee Kesten saw the incident while waiting at the light after she dropped her son off at school.

“She was coming down and making a left into Conifer High School; she had a yellow light and he was going straight.  He clipped her, spun her around and then drove over the front of her car, flipped onto the side and then hit the light,” Kesten said.

The student’s car was smoking and leaking fluid as Kesten went to pull her out of the wreckage. Both parties refused medical attention from the Elk Creek EMTs but the Conifer student was taken to the ER.  The male driver was not.

The Conifer student’s father wants to tell kids to “drive safe and be safe.”