Zachary Elam, 16, was jumping a hill at high speed just before 7 p.m. in the 7500 block of Franklin-Madison Road when he lost control of the sedan he was driving, according to Sgt. Tom Bloomberg of the Ohio Highway Patrol.
Elam, a Madison High School junior, and Mara Wocher, 16, a Middletown High School sophomore, were ejected. Sabrina Tannreuther, 15, also was injured. All three were taken to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. None wore a seat belt, Bloomberg said.
Elam’s condition improved from critical to serious late Thursday, April 1. The hospital would not release the girls’ conditions.
“Hill-hopping,” driving a vehicle over the crest of a hill to go airborne, has been blamed for several teen deaths and injuries in Butler and Warren counties over the years.
Murphy said Elam’s car, traveling south, ran over his neighbor’s mailbox and grazed a tree — the same one 16-year-old Darrin Lewis, a Madison student, hit seven years ago in a fatal accident — then flipped.
The car came to rest near a white cross memorializing Lewis along the roadway, which divides Madison and Franklin townships at the county border.
So far, Warren County sheriff’s Chief Deputy John D. Newsom said he hasn’t heard many reports of hill-hopping. “Maybe the kids are getting the message,” he said.
Murphy said his son, 13, saw the accident but turned away before the teens were ejected.
“I’m glad he didn’t see that ... I still can’t get it off my mind. I keep seeing those kids lying there,” Murphy said.
Staff Writer Tiffany Y. Latta contributed.
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