TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Grieving Mom Says 'Good Girl' Broke Rules, Died In Wreck

Chris Taylor/News Channel 8

Students gather at a memorial near the site of the crash.

ADVERTISEMENT

By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune and CHIP OSOWSKI News Channel 8

Published: September 18, 2007

Video: Victim's Mom Talks About Crash | Crash / Memorial Photos | Sign Guest Book

ST. PETERSBURG - It was a bait-and-switch, Michelle Carreras said, the sort teenagers pull to gain some freedom from their parents.

Her 14-year-old daughter, Raquel, was supposed to be spending Saturday night at a friend's house. That's what Carreras thought when the girl pulled away from home with another friend's grandfather.

Instead, Raquel and four other teens who attend St. Petersburg's Northeast High School ended up in a car driven by a 15-year-old boy. He crashed. Raquel was killed.

Raquel Carreras

'I don't understand why she got in the car,' Michelle Carreras said through tears Monday morning. 'I thought she knew better than that.'

A clearer picture of the events leading to the death emerged Monday as the Florida Highway Patrol continued investigating the accident, which occurred at 10:45 p.m. Saturday on 62nd Avenue North.

Shawn Ledesma, a 15-year-old schoolmate of Raquel's, was driving a 2006 Saturn along 62nd Avenue at a high speed, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The Saturn veered out of its lane, sideswiped a Nissan pickup and spun out of control, the patrol said.

The car started rotating, struck a curb and then flipped, striking a fence and oak tree, the patrol said. Raquel Carreras was thrown out of a window and later died at Bayfront Medical Center.

Jasmine Bailey, 14, was in the car with Raquel. It was Bailey's house where Michelle Carreras thought her daughter would be staying.

'I was, like, halfway on her lap,' Bailey said Monday morning before walking into school. 'If anyone should have went out, it should have been me.'

Immediately after the wreck, before paramedics arrived, Bailey said she lay down next to her friend. 'I got her blood all over me,' she said. 'I was trying to talk to her. She didn't answer or anything.'

Bailey said she didn't know Ledesma.

Also in the car were Brittany Vinson, 14; Jace Morrow, 15; and Kyle Carver, 15. All but one of the four surviving teens had been released from Bayfront Medical Center by Monday morning, a hospital spokeswoman said. Bailey said Morrow was still there.

The occupants of the pickup were not seriously injured, the highway patrol said. Patrol spokesman Larry Coggins said the two cars were not racing.

Coggins said an investigation is under way into who will be held responsible for the accident. Ledesma's mother allowed Shawn to take the Saturn, Coggins said, though the teen only has a learner's permit.

Under Florida law, anyone with a learner's permit can drive only when accompanied in the front passenger seat by someone 21 or older with a valid driver's license. In addition, the permit holder can drive only between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., Coggins said.

A motorist is prohibited from allowing another person to take the wheel of his or her car if the person is not authorized to drive, he said. In addition, a driver is often held responsible if anyone younger than 18 in the car isn't wearing a seat belt, he said.

Some students at Northeast High were under the impression Ledesma had his driver's license, student Brandon Baker said.

'Everybody's really mad at him,' Baker said. 'He's not here today because I heard a bunch of kids was gonna fight him.'

At Northeast on Monday, at least 30 students had sought grief counseling by midmorning, Principal Patricia Wright said. 'They'll get a chance today and in the days to come to express their anger and also their grief,' Wright said.

Michelle Carreras said it's a shame her daughter's death came after she broke the rules. Vinson's grandfather had taken the girls to a movie theater in Pinellas Park, in the belief Michelle Carreras was going to pick them up there, she said.

Michelle Carreras wants people to remember Raquel - a cheerleader and Girl Scout who avoided drinking, drugs and those who did them - as a good girl.

She was quick to help older people, said her mother, who owns a property management business. She was also obsessive about her appearance, insisting that her mother drive her to the bus stop a couple blocks away so her hair wouldn't get mussed.

Raquel Carreras even got along with her younger sister, Ruthie, who turned 13 Monday. A brother, Douglas, 26, who's in the Navy, was on his way into town when he learned of Raquel's death.

'My daughter was fantastic ... a lot,' Carreras said. 'She was a teenager, and she didn't follow rules, but that doesn't make her a bad person.'

'I was very proud of her, and I told her that all the time.'

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT