Teen killed in crash in Battle Ground

A teenage boy was killed Tuesday night when the pickup he was riding in crashed into a power pole and then a tree and caught fire north of Battle Ground, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. Two other teenagers in the truck were taken to a hospital.

Deputies responded around 9:15 p.m. to Northeast 319th Street and 152nd Avenue for reports of a single-vehicle crash. A caller said a pickup was on fire, and three people were inside.

A Samaritan helped two of the teenagers out of the pickup. Once the fire department arrived, the truck was fully engulfed in flames. First responders found a boy dead in the front passenger’s seat, the sheriff’s office said in a news release Wednesday.

According to investigators, a 16-year-old boy was driving the Nissan Frontier pickup at a high rate of speed, south on Northeast 152nd Avenue. The truck went off the east side of the road and struck a power pole and then continued into a large oak tree.

The driver and a 15-year-old passenger were injured and taken to a hospital. The sheriff’s office said it did not know the teenagers’ conditions Wednesday afternoon. The agency said the boy who died was also around 15 years old.

The sheriff’s office is continuing to investigate but said that excessive speed contributed to the crash.

Detectives were investigating at the scene until 5 a.m. Wednesday, and Clark Public Utilities restored power to nearby residents.

The sheriff’s office did not release the names of the teenagers because of their ages.