Teenager who was attending Coachella music festival killed in car accident
A TEENAGER has died after being hit by a car near Coachella in the third death related to the music festival in the past three years.
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AN 18-year-old woman has been killed after being struck by a car near the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California.
The woman was crossing the street around 8.15pm on Friday night when she was struck by a Jeep Grand Cherokee at an intersection not far from where the festival was taking place.
She has been identified by the Riverside County Coroner’s Office as Michala Freeland from Highland, California.
Ms Freehand was taken to Eisenhower Medical Centre, where she died about an hour later, according to the coroner’s office.
The victim’s family told media outlets that Ms Freehand was in town for the annual music festival on Friday.
The driver of the car, a man from Indio who was travelling with an infant in the back seat, remained at the scene and co-operated with the investigation, police said.
Neither the driver nor the infant were injured.
Police said alcohol and drugs do not appear to be factors in the crash. The investigation is still ongoing.
Last year, a 23-year-old attendee of Coachella was struck and killed by a train about 6km from the festival site. Jannik Andersen, a student at the University of Colorado, was attending weekend one of Coachella. Friends said he “ran away” from them at the festival during the day.
A coroner’s report later confirmed drugs and alcohol played a factor in his death, with cocaine, marijuana and alcohol found in his system.
According to reports, train engineers saw Mr Andersen lying on his back on the train tracks just after 3am. They blew the emergency whistle several times but he didn’t get up, despite looking up at the train three or four times.
Engineers pulled the train’s emergency breaks but were not able to stop the train. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
In 2014, a 24-year-old California woman died after collapsing at a taxi pick-up stand outside the festival grounds.
Kimchi Truong was rushed to hospital but died five days later of a suspected drug and alcohol overdose. Ms Truong’s death was believed to have been the first death tied to the giant festival since 2008.
Historically, there have been few major incidents at Coachella. With almost 100,000 people in one venue, Indio police and event promoters Goldenvoice work closely for 10 months leading up to the festival and have contingency plans in place for everything, from a natural disaster to a mass shooting.
“We have staging areas throughout the city, we have plans to get people out as fast as possible, we have plans to shelter people in place,” Indio Sergeant Dan Marshall said in a statement. “We’re definitely not a soft target like somebody might think.”
Unlike many Australian music festivals, where attendees can drink freely throughout the site, Coachella confines alcohol consumption to the beer gardens and campgrounds of the polo grounds. Medical aid tents and security personnel also pepper the entire venue, and free water and cooling stations are provided.
Last year, police made 226 arrests over both weekends at Coachella, less than 0.1 per cent of the number of people who attended.
News.com.au has contacted police and Goldenvoice for a comment regarding the number of arrests made at the festival so far this year.
Originally published as Teenager who was attending Coachella music festival killed in car accident
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