Photo by Mike Moore/For the Nevada Appeal Lyon County rescue crews work to free a 17-year-old girl trapped in her vehicle following a collision Thursday morning at Occidental Drive and Highway 50. This was the second time in a week when a 17-year-old was injured trying to pull out from the River Park subdivision, a new development of more than 500 homes in Dayton.
DAYTON - For the second time in a week, a 17-year-old girl was seriously injured pulling out from the River Park subdivision at Occidental Drive and Highway 50 on Thursday.
According to Trooper Mark Zacha, the girl was trying to make a left turn onto the highway when she crossed in front of a three-quarter-ton Dodge Ram pulling an 18-foot travel trailer.
Truck driver Lawrence Weirum, 61, of Idaho, struck the girl's 1992 Mercury Topaz between the driver's door and rear passenger's door, crushing the vehicle and sending it into the dirt shoulder.
Zacha said the girl suffered a broken pelvis and a minor head injury. She will likely be cited for failure to yield right-of-way.
On Tuesday, another 17-year-old girl had to be extracted from her vehicle and flown to a Reno hospital, after she, too, attempted to turn left from Occidental and the River Park subdivision.
The new subdivision that sprang up in the last couple of years contains 500 homes and by 2010, 500 more are expected to be built there in the fastest growing county in the state.
According to Trooper Chuck Allen of the Nevada Highway Patrol, there have been five injury accidents and five property damage accidents at Occidental Drive and Highway 50 since January.
Scott Magruder, with the Nevada Department of Transportation, said by the end of 2006, Highway 50 from Fortune Drive to Chaves Road will be expanded to four lanes with a center turn lane.
"There's no stoplight planned for that intersection," he said.
n Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.
