Village Christian Senior Critical After Accident That Killed Two

A senior at Village Christian School remains in critical condition after an Oct. 1 afternoon automobile accident near the school on La Tuna Canyon Road. Services are scheduled for today and tomorrow for two Village Christian students killed in the accident.

To remember senior Christopher Oliver and junior Nicholas Roth, both 17, who died in the crash, the Sun Valley school has cancelled all activities scheduled for this afternoon, said Village Christian Superintendent Ron Sipus. At tomorrow’s football game, players will wear a decal with their late teammate Roth’s number, 56, and Oliver’s initials on their helmets.

Michael Lee, 17, was listed in critical condition at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Santa Clarita Thursday morning.

Services for Roth are scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. today in a Van Nuys church and services for Oliver will be at 4 p.m. Saturday at Salem Lutheran Church in Glendale.

According to a Los Angeles Police Department report, Lee was driving east on La Tuna Canyon Road near the Sun Valley school in a red Chevrolet Camaro after school Oct. 1 when he lost control of the vehicle. The car skidded across the double yellow lines into oncoming traffic. It collided with a Toyota Tacoma in the westbound lane driven by 22-year-old Rosemead resident Con Ung. A white Toyota Tacoma pick-up that was illegally street racing with Lee’s Camaro fled the scene, according to the report.

Ung was treated for his injuries and released.

Oliver and Roth, both passengers in the Camaro, died at the scene from massive blunt force trauma, according to LAPD reports.

Sipus said the school is making no assumptions on the circumstances of the accident until the investigation is completed. “Right now nobody knows for sure because the investigation is going on,” he said. “At this point, all we know is that all the answers have not been put together yet.”

Sipus described Oliver as a straight-A student, adding that Lee is a top student and Roth was a strong student who lived life to the fullest. Roth and Lee were on the varsity football team for the 56-year-old private, Christian high school, which has about 600 students enrolled full-time.

The school cancelled its first at-home varsity football game the night of the accident. Sipus said students gathered in the Providence hospital parking lot Friday night after Lee underwent surgery. To help students cope, the school chapel was open all day Monday, Sipus said, and teachers trained in grief counseling and additional grief counselors and pastors were available to counsel students Monday.

“It was absolutely incredible to see ... the support that was provided for our young people. Essentially anywhere the person would turn that day, there was someone [available for grief counseling],” Sipus said. He said between 650 to 700 students and parents of students gathered for a Wednesday memorial service.