Those two remember three-fatality crash tell teens to ‘slow it down’

Young drivers were urged to put distractions aside and make good choices when behind the wheel during a presentation Monday, March 31, at West Central Valley High School. If they don’t, the consequences could be fatal.

The Iowa State Patrol was joined by the parents of Kennedy Elksamp and Chloe Lucas, both 17, who were passengers in a 2014 Camaro July 1, 2022 on the outskirts of Dubuque. The car was driven by William Wodrich IV, 18, who was traveling an estimated 127 mph when it made contact with a road sign and rolled into the ditch, which killed all three occupants.

Trooper Shelby McCreedy told the students that vehicles don’t discriminate when bad decisions such as these are made.

“Vehicles don’t care what kind of a talented athlete, musician or artist you are. They don’t care how smart you are academically. They don’t care who your parents are, how much money you have or what your social status in the community is. You are not special to a vehicle, and every single time you get into one, you’re at the risk of death,” McCreedy said. “Whether you’re out on a back country road playing chicken or tearing through a parking lot because you can, keep in mind that every single time you get into that deadly weapon, you’re risking your life.”

Trooper Eric Payne was the primary investigator on the crash, as he is on many fatality crashes. This one was especially memorable for him. In an unconventional turn, he has become good friends with the parents of both girls involved.

Payne said that once the car was towed away from the scene, it took investigators over an hour to extricate each of the deceased teenagers from the mangled car, which was on display at WCV for students to see. Troopers also played students a video about this crash called “The Devastation of Speed” which is available to watch on YouTube.

The car’s airbags deployed. A small amount of blood and one of the students’ phone chargers are also still in the vehicle, evidence of the trauma the incident brought about. The make and model of the car are unrecognizable due to the severity of the damage.

“They went from euphoria to dead in a second and a half,” Payne said. “When we uncovered the car to extricate the occupants, one of the girls was laid back looking up at me. That’s something I will never forget.”

Traffic data from the ISP reveals fatalities on the state’s roads are on the rise. Last year, there were 56 deaths in the entire year. This year, there are already 50 reported.

A look back to 2020 shows the highest total came in 2023 when 70 people died on Iowa’s roadways. Twenty-five percent of the people who have died this year in vehicles weren’t wearing seatbelts.

Alcohol use is only a fraction of the concern law enforcement has. Distracted driving of any kind is just as much a concern. Last week, Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law a measure that will make it illegal, beginning July 1, to use your phone in any way while driving. If driving, a phone must be accessed hands free.

The black box in the Camaro the teenagers were in shows it was going about 150 mph just before the crash. Videos of the whole event were already posted to social media when it happened because the occupants were filming. The two girls had just a small connection with Wodrich before the night of the crash, investigators found. Social media was used heavily to learn a lot of this during the investigation.

The parents of the girls said they tell teenagers all the time to be bold and ask to get out of a car if they don’t trust what the driver is doing or how they’re acting.

“Kids are hard because I can see myself, really not that long ago, doing the same stuff when I was in high school. If we can just get you to slow down, put your seatbelt on,” Payne said. “Everytime I drive fast at work I feel like I’m in control, but the honest truth is that I’m not. I can’t control that vehicle that’s behind me or that vehicle that makes a lane change in front of me. I can’t control those outside things. Those of you who are driving, slow it down, please. I get it — it’s fun, it’s exhilarating — but save it for the rollercoasters.”

Every other year, WCV hosts a mock accident, complete with first responders and “victims,” where students can learn vividly from experience the consequences of bad decisions made behind the wheel.

WCVHS Principal Randy Martin asked students to be “intelligent.” He said he doesn’t want to get a call the morning after Prom telling of a tragedy.

Stuart Police Sgt. Katie Guisinger, who is West Central Valley’s Resource Officer, said she was grateful to be able to have this presentation come to Stuart this spring as the prom and graduation seasons approach at lots of area schools.

“Trooper McCreedy offered this, then she was really vital in getting Trooper Payne and the parents here from Dubuque. When she offered that, you can’t say no to that,” Guisinger said. “Seeing is believing, so this is a great opportunity for these kids to see that this is real, this is recent and these are kids their age. The kids always tell me I’m telling them to not drink and drive or do drugs, but this was just speed. It was a bad choice and a terrible consequence they have. We want their attitudes to change and their choices to change.”