3 teenagers die in accident over break

Three young women were killed in a two-car accident on Ind. 46 Wednesday afternoon.\nAt about 2 p.m. Wednesday, a 2003 Cavalier carrying 18-year-old Joni Renee Morgan and 19-year-olds Ashley R. Freyn and Ashley Leanna Parr crossed over the center line and struck a 2003 Chevy pickup truck driven by 66-year-old Paul Vanderbur, said Deputy Sheriff Terry Mullis of the Monroe County Sheriff's Department.\nNone of the four people involved were wearing seatbelts, and two of the girls died on impact, Mullis said. The other died on the way to the hospital.\nMullis said Vanderbur's airbag saved him from a fatality, but he suffered several cracked and broken ribs.\n"I've worked quite a few accidents in this county, and I have never encountered one like this one," Mullis said. "The debris field was over 200 feet -- it actually removed the engine and transmission from the automobile."\nMullis, who investigated the accident, said the young women's car crossed over the center line and Vanderbur, who was driving in the other direction, ran into the guardrail in an attempt to avoid the car. Despite his effort, the two cars hit head-on. Mullis said he did not know why the car swerved over the center because no one in the car survived.\nFreyn was a resident of Scipio, Ind., and Morgan and Parr were from Nashville, Ind. Vanderbur lives in Westport, Ind.\nVanderbur was not available for comment by press time.\nMullis said wearing seat belts could have increased the likeliness of survival, but that it is difficult to tell whether it would have made a difference because of the severity of the crash.\n"I can't say they wouldn't have died due to the severity of the crash, but I don't believe all three of them would have died," he said. "I think we'd have at least one, possibly two survivors. But that's just speculation. It was a bad crash."\nMullis said the Brown County Sheriff's Department, the Indiana State Police Department, the Monroe County Sheriff's Department and the Bloomington Police Department all responded to the accident in some way.\n"It's not easy, not easy for any officer to come up on a scene of an accident like that or to work it," Mullis said. "I don't care if you've been doing it for a month or 30 years. But we have to do it. We might not sleep for a few days after, but we have to do it"