"Way too young:" Teen dies following two-vehicle Crash in Racine County
RACINE COUNTY -- 17-year-old Taylor Skendziel — the driver seriously injured in a crash near CTH U and 2 Mile Road in the Town of Yorkville on Wednesday, June 15th has died. Two other girls were also in the vehicle at the time of the crash.
A memorial now sits near the scene of the crash.
“I felt like a truck hit me in the chest,” Charlee Warner’s older brother, Trin Warner, remembers getting the phone call that his 15-year-old sister had been in a very serious car accident, his hand rising to his chest. He himself had just been in an accident himself days earlier, the purple cast on his right wrist is a lasting reminder.
“I only looked away for a split second,” he remembers, snapping his fingers.
Taylor Skendziel
But in Charlee’s case, it was her 17-year-old friend Taylor Skendziel driving, and according to authorities she had the right of way.
Racine County Sherriff’s Office says a 58-year-old driver failed to yield at the stop sign and crashed into Skendziel’s car with his SUV.
Also in Skendziel’s Dodge Neon was 15-year-old Sadie Regep. The three girls were on the way to their end of the year softball banquet. They were all on the JV team at Union Grove High School.
Charlee's mother Lori, admits it’s hard to put the array of emotions she is feeling now into words. Her daughter lays just a few feet away, inside the house recovering. However one of her daughter’s closest friends, Taylor, passed away from her injures just the night before.
Taylor Skendziel
Lori says she is so grateful her daughter had the opportunity to have Taylor in her life.
“I hope when she thinks of her she smiles,” Lori said.
The two girls used to drive around a lot together. According to Lori, Taylor didn’t like to drive alone so she would come pick Charlee up, just so she would have a companion in the car.
In their grief, the Warner family says they have seen hope in the community. They have received so much support and love -- people stopping by to wish Charlee well, dozens of phone calls and messages, and people rallying around them and the Regeps and Skendziels.
A family friend of the Skendziels set up a Gofundme account for the family which received more than $4,000 in just a few days. That friend says Taylor was joyful, always smiling, and ambitious. She was just accepted to a nursing program at Gateway College.
People who didn’t even know Taylor personally had only heard good things about her. A small memorial has now been set up at the scene of the crash, and families stopping by say she was “a role model” for the community and their children.
One woman, Tiffany Janicek who stopped by with her three children says, “I wanted to make sure they came and showed respect for a member of our community. A wonderful young woman from what I understand as well as the other two young girls. She was just way too young."
Taylor Skendziel
A vigil is planned for Taylor and to support the other two girls Saturday at Union Grove Baseball Park at 6:00 pm.