Tulsa Police Arrest Underage Driver In Deadly Hit And Run

Wednesday, September 13th 2006, 5:22 pm

By: News On 6

Tulsa Police say an underage driver was behind the wheel of the car that killed a 11 year old boy in his own front yard. It happened Wednesday afternoon in the 3600 block of 106th East Avenue.

News on 6 reporter Ashli Sims says the east Tulsa neighborhood was filled with screams of anguish after the accident.

A 11 year old boy was out mowing his lawn, when a terrible accident took his life. Witness Gail Pinkerton: "we heard the tires squealing, a thump, a bang and then we heard screaming and fire trucks and then we came out to see what happened."

Tulsa Police say a Chrysler Sebring was speeding around a corner, when the driver lost control. Officers say the driver over-corrected, spun the car 180 degrees, hit the 11 year old boy, took out a trailer and flipped over on to a house.

They say the driver is not much older than the victim, just 14 years old. Tulsa Police officer Paul Downe: "the car's a Chrysler, its heavy, its large and that's why they don't give driver's licenses to 14 year olds cause they can't handle them."

Two other teenagers and an 8 year old were inside the car, when it crashed. All of them were taken into custody.

Neighbors were shocked and saddened, but they say this area is notorious for speeding. Gail Pinkerton: â€œthey come around the corners they think this street is like a freeway. They go 60 miles an hour. You hear tires squealing all the time. It was just an accident waiting to happen and it happened." Neighbor Clifford Shannon: "yeah, well there is there's always a lot of kids playing on the streets. Itâ€™s a shame. Itâ€™s bad that it takes something like this before they do something about it."

Tulsa Police have not released the name of the victim. But the News on 6 did find out he is a Tulsa Union 6th grader and two of his siblings are also in Union Schools. Union School officials say they are going to provide grief counseling at the 6th, 7th and 10th grade schools on Thursday to help students through this tragedy.

An investigation into the accident continues.