5 teen boys dead after car drives off cliff in Grand Junction

Five 17-year-old boys were killed after a car drove off a cliff late Saturday in Grand Junction, officials said.

Investigators believe speed could have played a role in the crash “in the late hours” Saturday near 2694 Lookout Lane, according to the Grand Junction police department and the Mesa County Coroner’s Office.

Dispatchers received a call at about 7:45 a.m. Sunday about a possible car that drove off a cliff. When police arrived, five boys were found dead in a crashed vehicle on the side of a hill.

The car was going southbound on Lookout Lane, a residential area, when it veered off the road and down the steep incline, police said. 

All boys were residents of Grand Junction, according to a statement from the coroner’s office, which said it does not plan to publicly name the victims because they are minors.

Three of the occupants were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, including the driver and the front seat passenger, the coroner’s office said. The two occupants who were not wearing a seatbelt were ejected from the car. 

Their deaths were due to the crash, autopsies revealed.