On Saturday, Jan. 22, A car full of Naperville students lost traction with the road and wrapped around a tree in the median on 75th Street between Naper Boulevard and Washington Street.

Driving his 2008 grey Mitsubishi lancer was Central junior Jimmy Ryan. Central Junior John Cinzio sat in the passenger seat and sitting in the back (from right to left) was North sophomores Susie Carpenter* and Reem Amara as well as North junior Vee Jage.

According to Cinzio, the car headed west on 75th Street towards their destination at Brunswick Zone in Naperville, when the accident occurred. All five students are safe but the car is totaled.
“There are two different stories,” Cinzio said. “I think I told Jimmy that I saw a deer but Jimmy tells me that he just lost control of the car and drove over ice.”

Cinzio said the car hit the tree on it’s right side near the main support beam. Cinzio’s doctor told him that if the tree made contact four inches closer to him he would have died.

According to Amara, the car just started swerving.

“We weren’t speeding; I know that for sure,” said Amara. “And Jimmy was paying a lot of attention when he was driving.”

After the accident, Ryan was charged for reckless driving, endangerment of minors, and driving with more than one passenger within the first year of having a license.

“I don’t remember exactly how or why [it happened],” Ryan said.

Ryan returned to school the following Tuesday after the accident with a bruised lung and heart. Cinzio returned to school in three weeks after the accident, having fractured his acetabulum bone on his right hip. Amara returned to school two weeks after the accident with a gash in her head, bruised ribs, a sprained left leg and sprained shoulders. Jage shattered her orbital bone, or her eye socket, and cheek bone.

*Name changed by request