SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- An 18-year-old girl was killed Sunday in a fatal crash of a vehicle operated by her friend on a highway in Redwood City, Northern California, local media reported.
The teenage passenger, who authorities described as a foreign national, was with her friend, also an 18-year-old girl who was driving a black Audi A3 southbound on Highway 101 in Redwood City, about 43 km south of San Francisco, the KTVU TV station said.
The driver lost control of the car that veered off the expressway and went airborne before crashing into a light pole, which reduced the vehicle into a pile of mangled, twisted metal, according to the TV report.
The young passenger was pronounced dead at the scene while the driver was sent to Stanford Medical Center for major injuries, the Mercury News daily said.
"Alcohol is being investigated [as a factor] and the driver is under arrest at this time," the newspaper quoted Kurtis Waldschmidt, an officer of California Highway Patrol (CHP) in Redwood City, as saying.
Both girls lived in San Jose in Silicon Valley, and Sunday's crash is the fourth deadly incident investigated by CHP Redwood City in the last nine days, local media said.
