Teen girl dead after car filled with high schoolers plunges into bayou, Texas cops say
.png "A group of three teenagers plunged into a bayou in Houston, Texas, after the car they were in veered off of a bridge.")
A car carrying three teenagers smashed through a guardrail and plunged into a bayou, killing one, according to police in Houston, Texas.
Packed into a BMW and traveling along the 8000 block of Harrisburg Boulevard at “a high rate of speed” on Monday, June 6, the 16-year-old girl behind the wheel apparently lost control, the Houston Police Department said in a release. Around 1 p.m., the car veered right while crossing a bridge, sending the driver and her 17-year-old passengers into the water below.
The driver, a student at Milby High School, was just one day away from the start of summer break, but she wouldn’t live to see it.
With the school year winding down, students at Milby were released from classes early, TV station KTRK reported.
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One of the passengers, a male, was able to free himself from the sinking car and swim to shore, police said.
He ran from the scene but investigators spoke with him later on, KTRK reported.
“With teenagers, I’m sure there was a lot of panic and we need to piece that together to determine what happened from the time of the incident to when we spoke to them,” HPD Commander Megan Howard told the station.
Firefighters rescued the other passenger, who was trapped in the front seat, police said. She was transported to a hospital in stable condition.
The driver couldn’t be saved, according to the release. A dive team recovered her body and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
On social media, school officials identified the driver as Emily Castilleja.
“We are deeply saddened by the events of today. Please keep all involved in your thoughts and prayers,” the Milby softball team wrote in a tweet, asking students to wear blue on June 7 — the final day of school — “in memory of our beloved teammate.”
It isn’t clear what caused the car to veer off the bridge, but the crash is under investigation, police said.
This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Teen girl dead after car filled with high schoolers plunges into bayou, Texas cops say."