Yahoo Sports 'Beloved' Georgia Teen with 'Fiery Spirit' Dies After ATV Drives Up Wire and Flips Over
Kyleigh Rampley, 14, was driving with an 8-year-old passenger when the vehicle went off the road, according to authorities
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Kyleigh RampleyLoved ones are mourning the death of a 14-year-old girl from Georgia who was involved in an ATV crash last week.
Kyleigh Rampley, of Rome, was driving the vehicle on May 26 when it went off the road in Cherokee County, according to a news release from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), obtained by PEOPLE.
She was ejected from the 2017 Mahindra ATV after it drove up a wire on Cherokee County 102 “and overturned,” per the news release.
The teen was “critically injured” and transported to a local hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries, police said. An 8-year-old passenger was injured as well. Neither were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.
County Deputy Coroner Blake Madaris identified the 8-year-old as Rampley’s cousin, per The Miami Herald. Madaris did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. Additional information about the cousin's condition is not clear.
During her one year at Pepperell Middle School in Lindale, where she recently completed the 7th grade, Rampley was a member of the cross country and soccer teams, according to her obituary.
The teen, who spent most of her life living in Alabama, “was full of energy and personality” and “made an impact on many in such a short time” at her new school.
“She will be remembered by her peers and friends as being silly, kind, accepting, protective, and as one of her teachers said, ‘unapologetically Kyleigh,’” Rampley’s obituary read. “Kyleigh was beloved by many.”
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Some of Rampley’s former classmates participated in a balloon release on Tuesday to honor the late teen, according to ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
She was also a member of State Line Baptist Church, where she was recently baptized.
“Kyleigh will be greatly missed in our church,” the church said in a tribute on Facebook. “She loved the Lord and her Church.”
Mom Mallory Rampley mourned her daughter in a separate social media post. “I’m going to miss her contagious smile, fiery spirit, her desire to make everyone laugh,” she wrote on Saturday, “But most of all I’m going to miss the encouragement she provided me daily to be the best person that I could be.”
Services for Rampley will take place on Sunday, according to her obituary.
An investigation into the crash is ongoing, the ALEA said.
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