The Washoe Valley teenage girl involved in the single-vehicle rollover crash Tuesday afternoon in Pleasant Valley has died from her injuries at Renown Regional Medical Center, the Nevada Highway Patrol reports.
Heather Brown, 17, was declared brain dead on Wednesday afternoon at approximately 3:06 p.m., and had remained on an artificial life-support system through this morning when doctors were scheduled to perform an organ donation procedure, said NHP Trooper Chuck Allen.
The motor vehicle accident happened at approximately 3:57 pm on April 23, when troopers were dispatched to US 395 Alternate (US395A) near Ames Lane in Pleasant Valley.
For reasons still being investigated, Heather abruptly steered the 2003 Dodge 4-door sedan she was driving to the left causing the vehicle to travel across the center turn lane and both northbound travel lanes before departing the east side of the highway. After leaving the roadway edge, her vehicle struck a tree and rolled over alongside a section of right-of-way fence before coming to rest on its roof. She had sustained life-threatening injuries in the crash and was transported to Renown Regional Medical Center by Care Flight and REMSA personnel.
The accident caused the temporary closure of both northbound lanes for nearly five hours where emergency vehicles were staged so that troopers could capture the roadway evidence and complete their on-scene portion of the investigation. Nevada Department of Transportation and deputies from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office assisted our agency with traffic control duties by guiding motorists around the crash scene area.
Trooper Doug Hildebrand of the Nevada Highway Patrol’s Major Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) is investigating this tragic event. Witnesses to the crash are encouraged to contact him at (775) 689-4623 or dhildebrand@dps.state.nv.us regarding case number NHP-130423030.