Teenage girl demonstrates courage.

It was a tragic case of an inexperienced teen driving beyond her capabilities. Megan Pevehouse-Sharpe, 16, asked her friend, Brittany Thrower, also 16, if she could drive Brittany's car. She assured Brittany she could drive a stick shift and got Brittany's go-ahead, but the results proved disastrous. Three Beulah, Alabama, girls set off, with Megan driving, Brittany in the passenger seat, and Megan's younger sister, Kayla, 14, riding in the back.

It soon became obvious to Brittany that Megan had much to learn about shifting. She described what happened to the Opelika-Auburn [Alabama] News: "Megan would look down every time she'd change gears and the car would go to the right some. Well, the last time she changed gears she snatched the car a little too far and we went off the bridge."

When the car landed at the bottom of a 12-foot streambed, Brittany was seriously injured. She related: "As soon as the car stopped I tried to get out but both of my legs were broken and my wrist was broken." She was worried for herself and her friends. "I couldn't really move myself and I couldn't hear them talking, but I tried calling their names."

Megan did not respond, but Brittany noticed movement coming from Kayla. She searched for her cellphone and finally found it on the floor of the car, under Megan. Brittany then crawled out of the car and partially up the bank--despite her broken legs and wrist--to get into a position where she could get a phone signal. She got through to 911 dispatchers, but the ambulance had trouble finding the girls. Brittany continued: "It seemed like I was down there for an hour before they found us. I heard the ambulance pass over us and come back a few times. I just didn't know how to describe where we were so I gave them my mom's cell phone number so she could describe the road."

"When they finally got there I asked them to take care of Kayla first because I saw she had a hole in her head," Brittany continued. "I saw someone over trying to talk to Megan, too."

The girls were first taken to a hospital in Tallassee, before being sent to three separate hospitals. Megan was pronounced dead at Montgomery Baptist. Kayla had two broken legs and one broken arm, and also required treatment for a brain injury and needed plastic surgery. Brittany had two metal rods inserted in her left leg, screws inserted in her left arm, and a pin inserted into her left wrist.

Sharon Robles, Megan and Kayla's grandmother, told the Opelika-Auburn News, "We got to see [Megan] before she died. [Brittany] is a hero though, because she crawled, found that phone and climbed up an incline to get service and save Kayla.... I just want Brittany to know how great her family thinks she is for helping Kayla. She is our hero. Her mother told me what all she did, and I just can't believe it. She could have given up, but she was so strong."

Brittany told the paper, "It's just something I did. It all feels like a dream, just a day-to-day thing. [Megan and I knew] each other since we were in sixth grade. It's on my conscience every day, something I never want to go through again."