A Minnesota teen was killed in a violent car crash with a state trooper’s cruiser just weeks before she was due to graduate high school, according to reports.
Olivia Flores, 18, was taken off life support on Sunday, a day after the trooper slammed into her Ford Focus as she was turning across a parkway into the Apache Mall in Rochester.
The collision tossed Flores’ car into an oncoming Toyota Rav4, leaving her gravely injured along with her 19- and 21-year-old friends in the car with her. Four others who were riding in the squad car and the RAV4 were also hurt.
Flores was hospitalized after the wreck, and her family made the difficult decision to take her off life support Sunday.
An investigation remains underway into who had the right of way when the accident occurred, according to the Star Tribune.
In the meantime, the teen’s friends and family are mourning the loss of “a special young lady.”
“This past weekend the Flores family received a text message that is every parents’ worst nightmare. That their child has been in a horrible car accident,” a friend of the family wrote in a GoFundMe for her parents, Steph and Carlos Flores.
“Instead of planning Olivia’s graduation party and celebrating her next chapter in life, Steph and Carlos are left picking up the pieces of this tragedy,” the post read.
Flores was the captain of her high school cheerleading squad, and had been planning to take a gap year after graduation to help coach and travel, her mother told KTTC.
“Olivia loved her brother, Christian, who is currently in 10th grade and plays baseball for Owatonna. She saved her greatest cheer skills for him,” the grieving mother said.
“She went to every game and made sure he heard her cheering him on supporting what he did, just as he supported her.”
