Tragic crash takes life of teenager

A 17-year-old lost her life in a tragic crash Aug. 13 as she and her four passengers headed north on SR-155 five miles south of Nespelem.

The Washington State Patrol reported that at 9:24 p.m., the 1999 GMC pickup Jaelynn F. Vallee was driving failed to negotiate a curve, drove onto the shoulder, overcorrected, came back across the northbound lane, rotated and rolled onto the southbound shoulder.

The four other children in the vehicle injured and taken to hospitals: a 3-year-old girl to Coulee Medical Center, along with a 12-year-old boy; a 13-year-old girl to Sacred Heart in Spokane, along with a 13-year-old boy.

No one in the vehicle wore a seatbelt, the WSP report indicates.

Lake Roosevelt Schools issued a statement the next day offering counseling to anyone who needed it on Aug. 15.