3 teenage girls die in Mesa crash, 1 injured

Witness recalls hearing crash that killed teens in Mesa

MESA, Ariz. - Three teenage girls were killed and another was injured in a crash near Ellsworth and Guadalupe roads on the night of March 15, according to Mesa police.

Mesa detectives say the driver of a blue Mustang was heading eastbound on Guadalupe and was switching lanes when they lost control, hitting a curb and crashing into a nearby boulder.

The impact caused the car to roll over into a light pole before it finally came to a stop.

Three teen girls died and another was injured in a rollover crash near Ellsworth and Guadalupe in Mesa on March 15.

The four teenage girls inside, all ages 14 to 17, were trapped in the vehicle. The driver and front passenger died at the scene.

The two passengers in the back were taken to the hospital, where one of them died. The other girl suffered minor injuries.

"It appears that both speed and the weather were the primary causes of the accident," said Det. Richard Encinas with Mesa Police.

Video from the collision showed a car that had smashed through a pole, splitting it in two.

No names were released.

A witness named Chris Bailey recalls the moment he realized what had happened. "We just ran outside. It was pouring rain, and we got to the scene. It was a bunch of teenagers," he said.

He lives across the street and ran to the crash site as soon as he heard it happen.

"Soon as I saw the car, it was flat. Looked like a monster truck just went over it," Bailey said.

Witnesses say the four girls inside the car were traveling with another carload of friends. For those who are parents of teenage drivers, this is their worst nightmare.

"I have a 15-year-old. He’s going to be 16 in a month," said Richard Encinas with the Mesa Police Department. "It just hits home. I spoke with some of my partners and I said, 'I’m not sure I’m going to let my son drive right away."

‘I’m just so glad she’s alive’

Mother of teen killed in Mesa crash with her friends calls for changes in road safety

A photo at the memorial set up at the deadly crash site shows the three teenage friends killed in the accident. The mother of Hannah Brindle, one of the teens who passed, says the photo was taken about a week before the crash.

"They were singing to the song by Ke$ha, ‘Live like you’re going to die young,’" Jennifer Brindle, Hannah's mother, said.

The three high school students, along with another friend, were on their way to a park with another carload of friends in tow who witnessed Hannah’s car as it hydroplaned.

"They saw her car fishtail," she said. "The water just grabbed her tires and she went to the right, hit that rock and made her tire explode, and then she flipped and landed on that pole upside down."

The mother is calling on the city of Mesa to take action and add more storm drains along the road and to move decorative boulders from the street.

"Not have boulders on the edge of the curb ... why do we have it on the curb to where she hit and flipped? It was that rock and the rain that killed my babies and those other babies," Jennifer said.

Meanwhile, the mother of 14-year-old Angela, the teen who survived, says she had surgery and remains in the hospital suffering not only from physical, but emotional injuries as she copes with the trauma of what she experienced.

"I know her mom and her … they feel so guilty … I keep telling her don’t feel guilty. I’m just so glad she’s alive," Jennifer said.