A defiant teenager ignored her friends' pleas to stop texting at the wheel moments before she ran a red light and crashed, killing a father and his young daughter, prosecutors said.
Carlee R. Bollig, 17, allegedly told her friends to leave her alone before running a red light and smashing into Charles Maurer's minivan moments before the horror crash, the Star Tribune reported.
The teenager, from Little Falls, Minnesota, was driving without a licence when she went straight through an intersection despite her passengers screams of "red light, red light!", charging documents reportedly show.
Authorities say she failed to brake when her pickup truck slammed into the side of a minivan carrying Charles Maurer, his two daughters and their friend.
The 54-year-old dad-of-three was airlifted to hospital where he died a short time later, the Star Tribune reported.
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Cassy, his 10-year-old daughter, was taken off life support 10 days later after suffering severe head injuries, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for his family and funeral.
Maurer's oldest daughter and her friend, both 15, were injured in the crash but survived.
Bollig's passenger Caysi Jaronske, 17, reportedly told police that friends had asked her to stop texting and updating Facebook on at least "eight or nine occasions," the report says.
She allegedly refused and, following the crash, asked her boyfriend Deven Garlock, 18, to say he was driving as he was the only one with a valid driving licence.
Forensic tests, including DNA from blood and hair in the car, later showed Bollig had been behind the wheel, according to a search warrant obtained by the Tribune.
A small amount of synthetic marijuana and drug paraphernalia was also reportedly found in the car.
The details came to light last week as Bollig was charged with two counts each of criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation, texting and driving, and driving without a valid license.
