Car Taking 8 Teens to Party Crashes; Girl Killed, 4 Injured

A 16-year-old girl was killed and four other people were injured Friday night when their car, carrying eight teen-agers to a birthday party, went off the road in Silverado Canyon, hit a tree and overturned.

The girl, Bridgett Berg of Orange, a senior at El Modena High School, was riding in the back of a Ford Pinto station wagon with friends “going to a birthday party, a friend’s birthday party in the canyon,” when the accident occurred, said her aunt, Terrie Setzer of Brea.

“She was very loving and had a lot of friends,” Setzer said. “She had a very, very big heart. We’re just in shock still.”

The accident occurred a few minutes before 9 p.m. Friday when the car was traveling at an unknown speed westbound on Silverado Canyon Road, east of Oak Lane, and failed to negotiate a curve, California Highway Patrol dispatcher Rick Crow said. The car left the road and went over an embankment, hitting a tree and overturning, Crow said. It came to a rest on its top in a stream bed, he said.

Bridgett suffered major head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, the CHP said. Four others suffered minor to moderate injuries and were hospitalized, Crow said.

The driver, a 16-year-old boy from Silverado Canyon, was not identified because the accident is still under investigation, CHP officials said. He and his sister, Penny Michelle McGrath, 14, were taken to Chapman General Hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries and released, authorities said.

Taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with moderate injuries were Mikell J. Marone, 17, and Kristine Clody, 16, both of Orange, Sgt. Jerry Jewett said. Kristine was listed in stable condition Saturday; no information was available on Mikell.

The other passengers in the car were Chad Burton, 16, of Silverado Canyon; Craig Wilde, 18, of Orange and Shane Stedley, 17, whose address was unknown, Jewett said.

Setzer, Bridgett’s aunt, said the family heard that one boy had suffered a broken shoulder and broken rib.

The CHP’s Crow said there was no indication in the accident report that drugs or alcohol were involved. He said no charges had been filed or citations issued.

One of the teen-agers in the car told Bridgett’s family that “the driver lost control of the car when they were coming down the canyon. He couldn’t get control and went over the cliff,” Setzer said.

“Bridgett had just started at a new school,” El Modena High, where she was in the choir, Setzer said. Her friends apparently had picked her up at home to go to the party, because her car and purse were left behind and she had taken only her keys, the aunt said.

Her niece had left with friends she had not known long, Setzer said. “She wasn’t usually out with this group,” she said. But it was not unusual for Bridgett--who would have turned 17 next month--to be with friends, Setzer said.

“She was loved by lots and lots of kids, and her family here,” Setzer said. “She was a real deep girl. She cared a lot about people’s feelings.”