As thousands of students return to school Wednesday, two
boys from East Rochester will be in the
hospital. Police say they stole an SUV, and that was just their first bad
decision.
It was about on September 3, 2007, when the call came into East
Rochester police that the SUV had been stolen. In just
five short minutes the teens made their way to Perinton where at the Monroe County Sheriff's
Department got word of a serious accident.
East Rochester’s Chief of Police David
Pugliese says his officers arrived to find a horrific scene- one teen thrown
onto the roadway, the other still trapped screaming for help.
Police say it was on Milrace
Drive, EastRochester, that
this dangerous ride began for these teens after they stole a green SUV.It was several miles away on Jefferson
Avenue in Perinton that their ride came to a frightening
end."It's a terrible situation,
first of all they're juveniles they shouldn't be driving, second of all they
get in a very serious accident," said Pugliese.
"I heard the squealing of the car trying to stop then
looked out my bedroom window and I saw the car starting to flip and saw it
tumble once, then I couldn't see it anymore," says 16 year old Josh
Sandle.
Sandle and his father were among the first people on the
scene trying to help the teens. Josh’s mother made the frantic call to 9-1-1. She hopes this accident
is a stark lesson for her own children.
"(I'm) hoping that my kids are smarter than that and their
friends are smarter than that and they take this as a lesson and learn from
it," says Sherry Sandle.
East Rochester police
say charges are pending against the two boys who have not been identified.
At last report, the 14-year-old is in guarded
condition. He is a student at the alternative high school in Perinton.
The 15-year-old is in satisfactory condition and a student in the BOCES program
at EastridgeHigh School.
