'Senior Skip Day' Wreck: Car Went Airborne, Crashed Into Tree

MORROW, GA — The Georgia State Patrol has released new details about the fatal, single-vehicle crash that killed one teenager and seriously injured another late Monday morning in Clayton County. McDonough resident Makayla Penn, 18, died in the collision while the driver, 17-year-old Cristina Pavon-Baker of Jonesboro, was transported to an area hospital for treatment.

According to the state agency, a 2014 Mini Cooper was traveling north "at a high rate of speed" in the left lane on the ramp to Jonesboro Road/Ga. 54 from the interstate. The car left the roadway, went airborne and overturned several times.

"The vehicle struck the base of a fallen tree then struck a standing tree with its right side and top," the agency added. "The vehicle came to rest at the base of the standing tree."

State troopers were contacted around 11:40 a.m. March 26 by the Morrow Police Department about the fatal collision on the northbound side at Exit 233. They arrived to find the white Mini Cooper in the wooded area along the interstate at the Ga. 54 interchange, the Georgia State Patrol added.

Pavon-Baker is hospitalized at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. The GSP's Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team is conducting a follow-up investigation and charges are pending that report, the state patrol added.

According to WSB-TV, the two teens were traveling to the Southlake Mall to buy swimwear when the deadly wreck occurred. The students were not in class, as Monday was dubbed 'Senior Skip Day' at Community Christian School in Stockbridge, the news outlet states.

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"I'm sure you have heard the devastating news that two of our Community Christian School seniors were involved in a car accident today and that one of the students passed away. To say we are heartbroken is an understatement," Community Christian Church, which runs the school, said Monday to its followers on its Facebook page. Our staff has been praying with and counseling students today and we will continue to do so. Please join us in prayer for the injured student and the family of the student we lost, as well as our entire CCS family and staff."

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