RALEIGH -- One teen died and another was injured in a single-car accident on the U.S. 264 bypass on Wednesday afternoon.
Ashley Szymankiewicz, 17, was driving eastbound on the bypass between New Hope and Hodge roads at 2:54 p.m. when she lost control of her vehicle, causing it to spin from the middle lane into the left lane, police reported.
The vehicle slammed into a guardrail at 70 mph before flipping onto the passenger side and winding around a steel sign support, according to police spokesman Jim Sughrue.
A passenger in the vehicle, Carol Stamper, 15, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Szymankiewicz was taken to WakeMed's Raleigh campus with non-life-threatening injuries. She is being charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and with a safe-movement violation.
Stamper was a student at Enloe High School.
"Teachers and students have shared with me what a special part of Enloe High she was," interim principal Gerald Pickett said Wednesday. "Our school system's grief counselors will be here tomorrow morning to help anyone who needs to talk. This is a difficult time for us all, particularly her family, so I ask the Wake County community to keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and to be sensitive to our students' need for space and healing in the days ahead."
The weather was rainy when the accident happened, though it has not been determined whether the road conditions affected the driver.
There was an estimated $15,000 damage to Szymankiewicz's car.
