Police ticket another teen for violating license rules
BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer

JACKSON - An observant police officer prevented several young people from possibly being injured in a motor vehicle accident.

Police said that on Oct. 18 at 2:25 p.m. officers responded to a caller who said there was a fight involving juveniles in progress on Albert Court. The caller told police there was a vehicle containing five juveniles leaving the scene.

"Special Officer Virgil Angelini observed a vehicle matching the description broadcast by the dispatchers traveling east on East Veterans Highway," Police Officer Patrick Mackin of the Jackson Traffic Safety Bureau said. "The vehicle was stopped by police officers Angelini and Eric Prosniewski in the area of Butterfly Road.

Police said a 17-year-old girl from Jackson was driving the 2004 Honda Civic. A 17-year-old girl from Jackson was a front seat passenger and three juvenile boys from Lakewood were back seat passengers.

The driver was given a summons for violating the terms of her provisional driver's license. The provisional driver's license limits the number of passengers who may be in the vehicle.

At that time Prosniewski told the three boys to leave the vehicle and call someone to pick them up. Prosniewski remained at the scene of the motor vehicle stop until the three boys were picked up, according to police.

At 3:15 p.m. the driver left the scene with the one remaining passenger in her vehicle.

At approximately 3:25 p.m. Mackin and Police Officer May Nelson were dispatched to the scene of a motor vehicle accident on Bennetts Mills Road in which a vehicle ran off the road and struck several trees.

The officers recognized the vehicle at the accident scene as the same one that had been stopped a short while earlier near Butterfly Road.

"An investigation of the crash determined that the driver, the 17-year-old girl from Jackson, was smoking a cigarette while driving her vehicle," Mackin said. "The driver tossed the lit cigarette out of her window. Part of the cigarette came back into the window and landed in the driver's shirt."

Mackin said the driver lost control of the vehicle, crossed the center line of the road, narrowly missed hitting two boys who were riding bicycles and then crashed into several trees. The vehicle was totaled on impact.

The two 17-year-old girls who were in the car were treated for their injuries by MONOC paramedics and responders from the Jackson Mills Fire Company.

The driver was wearing a seat belt and suffered a leg injury. She was charged with careless driving, failure to drive in a single lane and discarding a lit cigarette out of her vehicle. She was taken to Kimball Medical Center, Lakewood.

Her passenger, who was also wearing a seat belt, complained of chest pains and was also taken to Kimball Medical Center.

The actions of the officer at the previous motor vehicle stop - making the three boys from Lakewood leave the vehicle - may have saved them from pain and suffering.

"Had the three juvenile males been in the vehicle during the crash they may have also received injuries, Mackin said.