Teen Girl Killed When Car Skids Into Channel

A teenage girl was killed Monday when her Jeep skidded off a ramp and plunged upside down into the rain-bloated Los Cerritos flood channel in Long Beach.

Amanda Carter, 16, of Long Beach was pronounced dead at Community Hospital of Long Beach, authorities said.

Witnesses told police that her black Jeep Cherokee was traveling fast down the Garden Grove Freeway about 1:45 p.m. when she turned sharply onto the Studebaker Road exit and lost control, said Sgt. David Cannan, spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department. The vehicle tumbled 25 feet down an embankment, crashed through a chain-link fence and plunged into 6 feet of water.

Police said the accident did not appear to be weather related, although the road was wet from heavy rain earlier.

The driver was alone in the car, Cannan said.

Several witnesses waded into the cold, murky water and tried unsuccessfully to pry open the Jeep’s doors to save the girl, who was trapped inside, said Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Paul Rodriguez.

Minutes later, a team of six divers pulled the unconscious teen from the submerged vehicle, which was overturned with only one rear wheel visible above the water, Rodriguez said. Emergency workers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but she was pronounced dead at the hospital.