OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A young ballerina was killed following a crash involving a student driver on Wednesday afternoon.
“One thing that I know she would want people to know is that she was a Christian,” Olivia Spivey told News 4. “She always had a smile on her face. She was very genuinely happy. She wanted everyone to feel welcomed.”
Spivey, who owns Take a Bow Dance Studio, is talking about her longtime ballet student, 15-year-old Hope Shaffer.
Shaffer’s life was cut short Wednesday afternoon following a horrific crash at I-240 and Shields.
“She was in a driving school vehicle. As they exited off of I-240, they were stopping for traffic when another vehicle coming up behind them was also exiting,” MSgt. Gary Knight with OCPD said.
According to the incident report, the driver of that vehicle saw the student driver stop as he approached, and looked back to see if it was safe to merge onto the service road.
“He believed they were going to merge and crashed into the rear of the vehicle that the victim was in,” Knight said.
The student who was driving and the instructor were transported to the hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries, but Shaffer, who was in the back seat, didn’t survive.
“The news was shocking,” Spivey said.
Now, the pictures on the pages of a book that Shaffer once made for Spivey and the powerful words she wrote in it, will be how her legacy live’s on at Take a Bow Dance Studio, where she will always be remembered.
“’Let’s keep dancing for eternity’ is something she wrote at the bottom, and she will be, with Jesus,” Spivey said.
Spivey created a Go Fund Me page to help the family pay for funeral costs.
Knight said at this time the driver of the other vehicle will not be facing charges.