Campus Mourns : Honor Student Killed in Crash on Way to School

Family, teachers and students Monday mourned the death of 16-year-old Dena Kimberly Kimble, an honor student at Ocean View High School, who was killed on her way to school early that day when the car she was driving collided with a delivery truck in Westminster.

“She thought she had a shot at being valedictorian,” said her father, 39-year-old Garry Kimble, adding that over dinner Sunday she had discussed the possibility of studying at Stanford University to be a doctor.

At 7:28 a.m. Monday, Dena Kimble, driving from her home in Westminster to the Huntington Beach school, had stopped at Quartz Street and was turning left onto eastbound Edinger Avenue when a Heineken beer delivery truck, traveling between 45 and 50 m.p.h., rammed into the driver’s side of her 1985 Ford Mustang, police said.

Pinned in Wreckage

The impact crushed the car to about three feet in width, said Sgt. C. R. Miller. Kimble, pinned in the wreckage, died at the scene of internal injuries, a coroner’s spokesman said. The truck driver, who was not identified, was uninjured.

Kimble, who had gotten her driver’s license on her 16th birthday about three months ago, apparently misjudged the speed of the oncoming truck, police said. Therewas no stop sign for traffic on Edinger at the intersection.

Another truck traveling east on Edinger Avenue just missed her car, according to a coroner’s office spokesman.

Bill Boehlert, a Spanish teacher who twice had Kimble in his classes, said he thought she was probably on her way to pick up a friend, as she normally did. He said the usual passenger, who is in his first-period Spanish class with Kimble, came in late and called Kimble’s parents when she learned Kimble had not arrived at school.

Other students saw the wreckage on their way to school “and began to put two and two together when Dena was late,” Boehlert said.

Her father said she had been driving his new car to school “off and on” since her Dec. 11th birthday.

‘A Sparkler’

Kimble, a junior and member of the student senate, “was a sparkler,” said Carol Shannon, Kimble’s English honors class teacher. “She was always very bright and cheerful about everything; she had a very positive attitude. She was in all sorts of activities. She was very popular and well-liked by other students.” Shannon said about one-third of her afternoon class was absent after hearing of Kimble’s death.

“They couldn’t even be there,” she said. “It’s a real loss.”

“I would even say she was loved by other students,” Boehlert said. “It was really remarkable. There were so many students who grew up with her around here who are really going to miss her.”