Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Dakota Revell may be coming home next week, her mother said on Monday.
CLOVIS — Police on Monday released videos from a Dec. 21 "car surfing" incident that left a teenager hospitalized for more than a month.
The videos, mostly from school cameras, show Dakota Revell and another teenager hopping on the back of a car, which then drove around school parking lots.
Dakota, 14, fell off when the car's driver swerved left, then right, near the high school football field, just before coming to a complete stop.
A passenger, the driver and the other girl on the trunk of the car rushed quickly to the victim and others who witnessed the incident came to offer assistance a few seconds later.
The driver of the car, 17, has been charged with great bodily harm by motor vehicle due to reckless driving. The case has been forwarded to the juvenile probation office, records show.
Veronica Revell said on Monday that her daughter has seen steady improvement since she was admitted to a Lubbock hospital in critical condition.
She remains in a Lubbock rehabilitation clinic, but is expected to be able to return home next week.
"She's going to need outpatient therapy for three days a week when we get back to Clovis," Veronica Revell said.
"She's not going back to school right away because the crowds in school can be a little overwhelming. But she's acting like Dakota."
Veronica said she hopes publicizing the accident, which her daughter does not remember, might help educate others.
"I just want these kids to realize it's dangerous," she said. "Dakota obviously wasn't standing on the car or laying on it, she was sitting on the back, which you would think would be doing it the safest way. But obviously it's not safe."
The girl with Dakota told the Revell family that she and Dakota thought the car was about to stop and they were planning to jump off.
"They weren't able to communicate with the driver and say, 'Stop. We're jumping off now,'" Veronica said.
Police released six videos in all: five from school cameras and one taken by a witness with a cell phone.
The video posted on The Eastern New Mexico News website is a compilation that shows the girls climbing on the back of the car and then two different camera angles from when Dakota fell.
