October 5, 2009 – Five 17-year-old Torrey Pines High School students were involved in a rollover crash in Rancho Santa Fe early Sunday that left one boy dead, another hospitalized with critical injuries and a third booked into Juvenile Hall on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular manslaughter, authorities said.
The deceased boy’s name was not released Sunday. An investigator with the medical examiner’s office said the teen’s parents were out of the country, and authorities were having trouble reaching them.
California Highway Patrol Sgt. Lew Hall said the boy, like all the teens involved in the crash, had attended Torrey Pines High School. He lived in Carmel Valley, Hall said.
Jamie Arnold, also of Carmel Valley, suffered serious injuries and was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla, Hall said.
He was listed in critical condition Sunday evening, a hospital official said.
The crash happened about 1:45 a.m. when the five friends were going north on La Granada near the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club in a Mazda 3, Hall said.
The car was speeding as it entered a curve, and the driver failed to make the turn, Hall said. The car went into the south lane, then off the road, hitting a wooden spilt-rail fence, bushes and trees before overturning and coming to rest on the road.
The teen who died had been a backseat passenger, Hall said. Wearing no seat belt, he was thrown part-way out of the car and had died before medics arrived, the medical examiner’s office said.
Jamie was also not wearing a seat belt, Hall said.
Two other passengers and the driver were not injured.
The 17-year-old driver, a Carmel Valley resident, was arrested and booked into Juvenile Hall. He was not identified because he is a minor.
Lew said the CHP is investigating where the teens had been before the crash. He said Torrey Pines Principal Brett Killeen told him trauma counselors would be available for the school’s students on Monday.