Authorities identify teens killed in vehicle wreck off side of Shades Mountain

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office today identified the two juveniles killed Tuesday when a vehicle plunged off Shades Mountain in Bluff Park.

Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates identified the young people as 17-year-old Yefry Said Hernandez-Paz and 15-year-old Griselda Noemi Zayas-Flores, both of Birmingham.

Hernandez-Pas was a freshman at Parker High School and was a goalie on the school’s soccer team, said Craig Williams, a spokesman for Birmingham City Schools. Counselors were at the school today to offer assistance to students and faculty, Williams said. “Our hearts go out to the families involved in this tragic situation.”

Zayas-Flores was a freshman at Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School in Birmingham.

Father Jon Chalmers, the school’s president, said the school is a close-knit community. “We’re just kind of stunned,” he said. “The freshman class in particular are devastated.”

School counselors and campus ministry teams are doing their best to support Zayas-Flores’ family and the school community, he said.

Birmingham police Sgt. Johnny Williams said crash scene investigators still have not completed the report from their investigation, so he was unable to say what caused their vehicle to go off the side of the mountain about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The 1999 Toyota 4Runner apparently was headed north on Valley Street when it went straight off the bluff where the road meets Shades Crest Road, instead of turning right or left onto Shades Crest Road or right onto West Oxmoor Road to go down the mountain, Sgt. Williams said

The vehicle plunged over the embankment and tumbled 300 to 400 feet before coming to a stop, he said. Both juveniles were ejected from the vehicle.

Authorities initially had trouble identifying them due to a lack of government-issued identification but finally were able to discern their identity with help from Birmingham Police Department school resource officers, Yates said.