A teenage girl made a terrible mistake that ultimately claimed her life just days before she was due to graduate.
Eighteen-year-old Averiee Osmundson from Davis, Oklahoma, died instantly on Saturday morning (May 10) after her SUV veered off Foothill Road and flipped “an unknown number of times,” according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
The crash happened at around 7:36AM, just two miles from her home.
Police say Averiee was not wearing a seatbelt when the vehicle left the road, then overcorrected and rolled multiple times.
She was thrown 78 feet from the SUV and pronounced dead at the scene.
She had been on the cusp of a life-changing milestone — graduating from Davis High School this Thursday — and was set to attend Oklahoma State University on a full-ride scholarship to study medicine.
Her cousin, Kegan Muth, shared the painful reality of what the world lost. “Averiee wasn't just a teenager in a car. She was someone's daughter, someone's first love, someone's first baby, someone's first little sister,” she told KOKH.
“She was more than an 18-year-old graduating high school; she was a beautiful, young, talented girl.”
Averiee dreamed of becoming a pediatrician. “All she ever wanted was to help the ones who needed the help,” Muth said.
Her aunt, Cassie Muth, told KOTV she was in complete shock when she got the call.
“I didn't believe it. Couldn't believe she was truly gone. Honestly, I'm still in disbelief that she's been taken from us at such a young age with so much potential and a lot still ahead of her.”
The crash occurred just 0.4 miles west of US Highway 777 — on a route Averiee likely knew well.
“She was only two miles from her house,” Muth told Newson6.
Describing her niece as someone who lit up every room, Cassie said: “She could always just put a smile on everybody's face. She was very adventurous, very outgoing.”
She also shared a reminder that’s hit the family hard in the wake of the tragedy: “Don't take life for granted. You know, make sure you hug your loved ones before they walk out the door and they leave you because you never know if they're coming back home.”
This isn't the only recent tragic story of highschoolers losing their lives in a car crash.
Three victims, all just 18 years old and days away from graduating Concord-Carlisle High School — were traveling near Panama City on the night of April 21 when their SUV collided with a tractor-trailer attempting a U-turn on Highway 98.
The force of the impact was so severe it sent their vehicle across the median and into a wooded area.
Two students, Jimmy McIntosh and Hannah Wasserman, were pronounced dead at the scene.
A third, Maisey O’Donnell, was rushed to Bay Medical Center but sadly did not survive. A fourth passenger, whose name has not been released, remains in critical condition.
Superintendent Laurie Hunter of the Concord-Carlisle Regional School District confirmed the devastating loss in a public statement.
“We are very appreciative of the outpouring of love during what is absolutely heartbreaking,” Hunter said, as reported by The New York Post. “We also appreciate the wish to feel purposeful and not helpless.
"At this time, it is most appropriate that no action be taken to honor the students without the full consent of the families and appropriate support for so many young people facing unfathomable loss," she added.
McIntosh, who lived in Carlisle, was behind the wheel at the time of the crash. Authorities confirmed he was wearing a seatbelt.
Investigators are still determining whether the other students were restrained. The 19-year-old driver of the tractor-trailer and their passenger were not injured.