Six Teens Die After Car Hits Tree

CRESTON, Ohio - Police are investigating an early morning accident near Wooster, Ohio, that claimed the lives of six teenagers, NewsChannel5 reports.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said that the vehicle that the teenagers were in was going west on West Salem Road in Wayne County just after 1 a.m. Wednesday when it veered from the road and struck a large tree. None of the teens was wearing a seat belt.

Preliminary reports show that speed is suspected to be the cause of the accident.

"I think it's a wake-up call to parents," Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Joel Smith said. "You need to teach your kids how to drive and you need to be aware of whom your kids are driving with."

Six of the seven teens involved in the accident either attended or graduated from Norwayne High School. The seventh teenager was still in middle school.

Jeffrey Kaufmann, 18, was driving the vehicle. He graduated from Norwayne last spring. Kaufmann was killed in the crash along with 18-year-old Cory Pelfrey, a fellow graduate.

Three Norwayne freshmen -- Paul Marshall, 15; Bruce CampBell, 14; and Jennifer Elliston, 14 -- were also killed. Jennifer's younger sister, 13-year-old Christie Elliston, also died in the crash. Christie was an eighth-grader at Creston Middle School.

Police said that all seven of the teens were in the car at the time of the crash, and the sole survivor, Norwayne freshman Katie Gonzalez, was Lifeflighted to Akron Children's Hospital.

Gonzalez, 14, is listed in serious condition in the intensive-care unit.

Neighbor Rob Robertson heard the crash, ran outside and wrapped a warm blanket around Gonzalez.

"The girl was lying up in shock," Robertson said. "The car was wrapped around the tree. It looked like a truck because the metal was piled up so high."

Officials say that alcohol is not suspected to be a factor in the crash. It's believed that the teens were heading to a nearby fast-food restaurant to get a bite to eat.

Flags in Creston, a village of just 2,000 people, have been lowered to half-staff. The school system's crisis-support team is discussing ways of helping students when school resumes after winter break.

"It's very difficult to reconcile that this could happen, and to understand why it happened," school superintendent Larry Acker said. "It's beyond belief."

Funerals for the six teenagers who died in the accident have all been set for Saturday.