A high-speed chase from Gates Co. into Pasquotank Co., N.C. Saturday night involved two teenagers. It ended when the car crashed into a ditch.
“I don't know what we were thinking. I don't know why we did it, and I am so very sorry,” said Nirvana Childers.
The 17-year-old is looking back on Saturday night with a lot of regret, after she says she and her 16-year-old boyfriend got into a car after they had been drinking.
The top of the car is flattened from flipping over and landing in a ditch on U.S. 158.
Officials say Childers was the driver that night.
According to the Gates County Sheriff’s Office, she turned the car around when she came upon a checkpoint set up by deputies and started driving back into Pasquotank County, leading deputies on a high-speed chase.
The sheriff’s office says they didn't get far before crashing, though they did travel more than 100 miles per hour at one point.
Childers is now facing multiple charges, but while she says she regrets drinking and getting in the car, she says it wasn't her behind the wheel - it was her boyfriend.
“I don't know how to drive. I don't even know how to put gas in a car, let alone drive,” said Childers.
Her boyfriend also told NewsChannel 3 over the phone that Childers was not the driver, though he would not say that he was the one driving.
The sheriff’s office says the night of the accident both claimed to be the driver, but evidence pointed to Childers because she was behind the wheel.
Childers says she got there trying to get out of the car because of how it was positioned. “I was up in the air. I couldn't just get out of the passenger side door because the whole car would have flipped back over. I had to get out of the driver's side.”
It will be up to the courts to sort out, but in the meantime, Childers and her mom, Donna Lord, say she’s learning a hard lesson about drinking and driving, no matter who’s behind the wheel.
“She's in trouble. I told her, she's grounded 'till she's 80,” said Lord.
It’s something they say they hope other teens will learn from.
“It could have turned out so worse. I never meant for it to be like that. It was so not worth it, and I so regret it. I will never ever drink or never even get in a car with anyone who's been drinking. It was the worst mistake I could have ever made in my life,” said Childers.
