3 teens killed in North Las Vegas crash were under 16

The three teens killed in a North Las Vegas car crash last week were not even old enough to have driver’s licenses, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.

On Monday, the coroner’s office identified the three teens as 15-year-old D’maje Keith, 13-year-old Gourney Childs and 13-year-old Bobby Jones Jr.

The teens died after the driver of the stolen 2017 Kia Soul they were riding in lost control and crashed into a light pole near North Martin Luther King Boulevard and West Carey Avenue on Wednesday night, according to the North Las Vegas Police Department. Police said the car was cut in half by the crash.

Keith and Jones Jr. died at the scene and Childs died at University Medical Center, according to the coroner. The official cause of death for all three teens was blunt force injuries.

Police said two other people were in the car and were taken to University Medical Center with life-threatening injuries after the crash.

Erin Breen, director of UNLV’s Road Equity Alliance, said she was “floored” when she heard how young the victims were. The alliance is a project within UNLV’s Transportation Research Center that specializes in pedestrian and roadway safety.

“My heart breaks for their parents, and for the kids,” Breen said.“Most bad decisions don’t end up in at least three kids losing their lives, and I don’t feel like a bad decision should ever cost kids their lives.”

She said the victims were so young that what she would normally say about teen driving does not apply.

“If they were old enough to drive, I’d be talking about this is why we have laws that don’t allow kids to drive with friends in the car for the first six months you can drive,” she said, “because you do dumb things when you have friends in the car at that age.”

Breen said the car involved in the crash must have been going at least 100 mph for that level of damage. She said streets should be designed to make drivers uncomfortable driving over the speed limit. That, she said, would be one way to help prevent such crashes.

“Martin Luther King at Carey is posted at 35 mph,” Breen said. “We need to build streets where you’re not comfortable with going over 100 mph on a 35 mph street.”

The North Las Vegas Police Department public information officer said that the crash is still an open investigation and that the department declined to comment.

On Monday night, a small memorial honoring the victims was still visible at the crash site, with dozens of assorted candles, and balloons and flowers tied to the traffic light next to messages from friends and family written on the metal pole.

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com.