LEHI — Students at Lehi High are mourning the death of junior Kiefer Sandoval — an award-winning writer and debater who also sang in the choir and was in the stage crew for school plays — who was killed on the way to school Friday.
Lehi student Alicia de Los Rios described the atmosphere at school on Friday, the fourth day of the new school year, as somber.
"Every corner you turn, someone was crying," she said.
Friday morning, Kiefer, 16, and his brother, Kyler, 15, were driving to Lehi High School on Center Street, a winding, narrow road.
Just after 7 a.m., Kiefer crossed the center line, then swerved back into his own lane to miss an oncoming car, said Lehi Police Sgt. Jeff Swenson.
As he overcorrected, his car went off an embankment, rolled, then slammed into a tree on the driver's side.
The posted speed is 25 miles an hour, and while official speeds haven't been confirmed, police believe Kiefer was going "too fast," Swenson said.
The impact killed Kiefer Sandoval instantly; Kyler Sandoval was treated
at the scene then released. Both boys were wearing seat belts.
Scott Mansfield, Kiefer Sandoval's debate teacher, said he learned about the boy's death during an emergency faculty meeting. He said he had to leave school because he was so emotionally distraught.
"It's terrible," he said. "He had such a soft, tender soul. Life always tends to take the nicest people the soonest. And I'm not just saying that because he's gone. He really was a gentle soul.
"He had a great future ahead of him," Mansfield said. "He could have done anything he wanted to do."
Kiefer's mother, Kimberly Sandoval, said her son "loved being in front of people. He loved to skate and long board. He loved to write."
Kimberly Sandoval said her son had just auditioned for to be in musical theater.
But he "always said he was going to be a lawyer," Kimberly Sandoval said. "(And) he loved acting. We always joked that most lawyers were in drama."
She said Kiefer just recently told her he decided to major in political science but had also always loved writing and won an award for creative writing in junior high.
Sandoval's friends Haverly Southworth and Jessica Scherf said the last time they spent time with him was during a recent 70-minute lunch break.
"We got in the back of a truck and drove around, hung out," Southworth said. "It was great."
They learned about the accident from a phone call from Kyler Sandoval, who called from the hospital.
"When I was feeling worst, he always made me smile," Southworth said after school Friday.
Friends laughed as they described Sandoval's passionate anti-establishment attitudes.
"He did what he wanted," Scherf said.
"He didn't care what anyone thought," Southworth said.
"He was (friends) with the geeks, the drama (participants), the debate team," Scherf said.
As soon as principal Chuck Bearce learned about the accident, he called an emergency faculty meeting to announce a student had been killed and that a crisis team of counselors would be available.
Shortly after the emergency meeting, "an announcement was made to the general student body that we had a lost a student and that there would be support services for anyone who needed it," said Sam Jarman, Alpine School District's administrator of high schools.
Friends may send cards to the Sandoval Family, P.O. Box 810, Lehi, UT 84043.