3 teenagers' failure to buckle up was fatal

This is a portrait of Andrea Reyna, 16, a junior at Roosevelt High School. Reyna died late Wednesday night February 20, 2013 when she was ejected from her car in a Northeast Side rollover crash. Reyna crashed on the 11,500 block of Crosswinds Way and wasn't wearing her seat belt. less This is a portrait of Andrea Reyna, 16, a junior at Roosevelt High School. Reyna died late Wednesday night February 20, 2013 when she was ejected from her car in a Northeast Side rollover crash. Reyna crashed ... more Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, San Antonio Express-News Photo: JOHN DAVENPORT, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close 3 teenagers' failure to buckle up was fatal 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

Andrea Reyna had just gotten her first car and was showing it off to her boyfriend when she realized she missed her 10:30 p.m. curfew.

She jumped in the car and called her mom to say she'd be a few minutes late, but never made it home Wednesday night.

Reyna was not wearing a seatbelt when she lost control of her speeding 2008 Hyundai Accent in the 11500 block of Crosswinds Way about 11 p.m., and she was ejected as the car struck a culvert and went flipping off the road.

She probably would have survived if she'd just buckled up, traffic investigators said.

“These kids, they think they're invincible,” said her mother, Anna Reyna, her voice trembling. “They need to make sure they follow all the rules.”

Reyna was the third San Antonio teenager this week who may have lost her life because she was riding in a car unrestrained during a collision.

A day earlier, two Brandeis High School students, Gabriella Lerma, 17, and Georgina “Gina” Rodriguez, 16, were fatally injured in a wreck that occurred while they were out of school during their lunch break.

Lerma was pronounced dead at a hospital and Rodriguez died Wednesday night.

Lerma and Rodriguez were riding in the back unrestrained, while the surviving driver and front passenger were wearing seatbelts.

Nearly half the 295 teens killed in traffic fatalities in 2011 were not buckled up, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

That year, there were 1,074 traffic crashes in which unrestrained occupants ages 15-20 suffered injuries that were serious or fatal.

Teens are among the riskiest of drivers on the road, crashing four times more often than adult drivers, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for people ages 16-20, killing more than 5,600 youths each year.

Since 2007, Texas law requires that everyone riding in a motor vehicle be secured by a safety belt, whether they are in the front or back seat.

There are myriad reasons teenagers ignore the rule, said TxDOT spokesman Mark Cross — they find seatbelts uncomfortable, they forget or they have a false sense of security.

The carefree, rebellious nature of teenagers likely also is partly to blame, Cross said. And because strapping on a seatbelt is a habit that many adults are accustomed to doing before getting behind the wheel, many young drivers simply aren't used to doing it.

“I think people that don't wear them have a false sense of security and invincibility,” Cross said. “Or they just weren't taught that you have to wear a seatbelt. You have to learn it and practice the habit.”

Andrea, a softball player who was in her junior year at Roosevelt High School, had been taking driving classes at Judson Driving School since she was 15, her mother said.

The youngest of three, Andrea had been driving with a permit for about a year before she was old enough to get her license.

She wanted to have a car so she could drive to work at Whataburger, a job she had recently acquired. Andrea was responsible, often volunteered to do chores for her mom and though she often negotiated her curfew, she seldom missed it.

That's why her mother grew worried when she didn't arrive home about 15 minutes after calling to say she was on her way back from her boyfriend's house, which is only about 5 minutes from home.

“I got in the car and drove toward her boyfriend's house,” Anna Reyna said, her eyes welling. “I could see all the emergency vehicles.”

She stopped when she recognized the mangled Hyundai Accent that her daughter had been so eager to drive just hours before.

“She was all excited,” Anna Reyna said. “She really wanted a car.”

aley@express-news.net