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Michigan teen warned best friend to slow down before fatal high-speed car crash

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Social Links for Lauren Elkies Schram
Published April 27, 2024, 7:00 p.m. ET

A Michigan teenager warned her best friend to slow down before the fatal, high-speed crash that killed her, according to authorities and reports.

Ella Vece, 19, was driving at around 100 miles per hour in 18-year-old Nevaeh Downs’ Volkswagen Jetta Thanksgiving night when they tried to jump a hill in Kent County, Michigan.

The vehicle veered off the road and crashed into a tree, according to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office and media reports.

Image of totaled white car on the side of the road.
Ella Vece lost control of the vehicle, left the roadway and struck a tree. Kent County

Vece was also seriously hurt in the incident.

“It’s kids doing stupid things,” Kent County Prosecutor Christopher R. Becker told The Post. “And it ended in a tragedy.”

A recording from the scene captured Downs warning Vece to slow down because there was an oncoming vehicle, the prosecutor said. “Maybe it distracted her,” Becker added.

Downs was a “thoughtful, strong and caring” person, according to an online obituary and a GoFundMe page to start a scholarship fund in her name at Grand Rapids Community College, where she was a student.

Vece was charged with reckless driving causing death, a felony, but pleaded to a moving violation causing death, which is a misdemeanor, according to Becker. She is due to be sentenced in June, and could serve up to a year in prison if convicted.

The “victim’s family didn’t want us to proceed,” Becker said.

Downs’ family considered Vece “like a daughter to them,” he said. Still, the prosecutor said his office had to “hold her accountable in some way.”

A smiling woman in a white tank top looks up.
Nevaeh Downs warned her friend to slow down because there was an oncoming vehicle. GoFundMe

As part of her plea deal, Vece lost her license for a year.

According to Becker, the hill they were trying to jump has been the site of a number of deaths in recent years.

Vece’s attorney, Keary Sawyer, echoed that sentiment, hoping officials will finally eliminate the jump.

He called the site an “attractive nuisance” that is tantamount to someone having a swimming pool in their backyard with no fence around it.

“This is a double tragedy,” Sawyer said. “This young lady is absolutely devastated and in counseling, as she should be.”