Crash kills teen who accepted ride
Driver faced earlier intoxication charge
IPSWICH - Lisa Sparaco needed a ride home, fast, from a house party Wednesday to make her 11:30 p.m. curfew. The 17-year-old ignored her friends' pleas, they said, and accepted a ride from a teenager who had been arrested two weeks earlier for driving intoxicated.
Minutes later, the driver, Michelle Sullivan, 19, of Beverly, lost control of her car on a rain-slickened, darkened road. The Honda Accord veered across Linebrook Road and rammed broadside into a telephone pole, shearing it. The impact killed Sparaco, who was in the back seat.
The accident stung this small town on the North Shore yesterday. Friends and neighbors mourned the death of a young girl who had just returned to the area after three years in New Jersey, determined to jump-start her life by reuniting and living with an older sister she adored. Neighbors also expressed sorrow for the teenage driver, who was scheduled to lose her license for 30 days on Sunday.
At the request of Ipswich police, the state revoked Sullivan's license yesterday for an indefinite period.
A preliminary investigation showed that Sullivan was driving 66 miles per hour in a 35-miles-per-hour zone when she crashed about 11:34 p.m., police Sergeant Dan Moriarty said. Sullivan, who was admitted to Beverly Hospital with broken ribs and chest injuries, was charged with motor vehicular homicide while operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and speeding, police said. Sullivan is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 13 in Ipswich District Court, said Stephen F. O'Connell, a spokesman for the Essex County district attorney's office.
Sullivan's other passenger, Nicole Pechilis,18, refused treatment at the scene and walked away, O'Connell said.
Yesterday marked Sullivan's second drunken-driving offense in two weeks, court documents show. Hamilton police stopped her Oct. 24 for traveling 51 miles per hour in a 40 miles-per-hour zone and charged her with operating under the influence of alcohol.
Sullivan had been ordered to relinquish her license this Sunday for up to seven months and to appear in Peabody District Court on Dec. 8, said Erin Deveney, general counsel for the state Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Ipswich police said they had obtained a warrant for the arrest of the person who supplied the underaged students with alcohol Wednesday night and were seeking that person last night.
Tearful friends said they were angry that the high schoolers had not heeded their warnings.
"Several of us tried to convince Michelle and Lisa that Michelle was too drunk to drive, but Michelle, she just wouldn't listen,'' said Tony Farina, 18.
Sparaco grew up in Ipswich, but had been living with her father, Frank, in Ocean Gate, N.J., for the last three years. She had persuaded him to let her join her sister, Laura, in Ipswich, so she could complete high school here, a school official and a neighbor said.
``She was always telling jokes,'' said Billy Thistlewood, as he helped add a poster to the makeshift shrine at the accident scene.
Crystal Lane, a former neighbor, said the two Sparaco sisters and an older brother, Christopher, had endured their parents' divorce. Sparaco's mother, Marcia Ricci, lives in Peabody.
Sheri Ames, Laura Sparaco's boss at the Cumberland Farm Store on Central Street, said, "Laura and her fiance, Jamie, got a new apartment so that they had the space for Lisa to come live with them.''
Funeral services for Sparaco are scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church, Ipswich. Burial will be private. Visiting hours will be tonight from 7 to 9 at the Morris Funeral Home, 45 North Main St.
Memorial contributions can be made in Sparaco's name to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 18 Tremont St., Suite 550, Boston, Mass., 02108.
Caroline Louise Cole can be reached at cole@globe.com.
