A Michigan teenager warned her best friend to slow down before the fatal, high-speed crash that killed her, according to authorities and reports.
Ella Vece, 19, was driving at around 100 miles per hour in 18-year-old Nevaeh Downs’ Volkswagen Jetta Thanksgiving night when they tried to jump a hill in Kent County, Michigan. The vehicle veered off the road and crashed into a tree, according to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office and media reports.
Vece was also seriously hurt in the incident.
“It’s kids doing stupid things,” Kent County Prosecutor Christopher R. Becker told The Post. “And it ended in a tragedy.”
A recording from the scene captured Downs warning Vece to slow down because there was an oncoming vehicle, the prosecutor said. “Maybe it distracted her,” Becker added.
Downs, a recent high school graduate, was a “thoughtful, strong and caring” person, according to an online obituary and a GoFundMe page to start a scholarship fund in her name at Grand Rapids Community College, where she was a student.
Vece was charged with reckless driving causing death, a felony, but pleaded to a moving violation causing death, which is a misdemeanor, according to Becker. She is due to be sentenced in June, and could serve up to a year in prison if convicted.
The “victim’s family didn’t want us to proceed,” Becker said.
Downs’ family considered Vece “like a daughter to them,” he said. Still, the prosecutor said his office had to “hold her accountable in some way.”
As part of her plea deal, Vece lost her license for a year.
According to Becker, the hill they were trying to jump has been the site of a number of deaths in recent years.
Vece’s attorney could not immediately be reached.
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