Holland Hall identifies students killed in car crash last week

By Anna Codutti

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    TULSA, Oklahoma (Tulsa World) — Holland Hall has identified the two students killed last week in a car crash near 91st Street and Riverside Parkway.

Mollie Buffington, 17, and Claire Amelia Esmond, 16, were both juniors and field hockey athletes. The south Tulsa private school’s memorial post does not indicate the status of the driver in the Feb. 13 crash, another junior, who was hospitalized in critical condition.

Witnesses reported that the girls’ vehicle went off the road near 9000 S. Riverside Parkway around 9:45 that Thursday night. With assistance from the Tulsa Police Department helicopter, officers found the Tesla crashed in Joe Creek.

Responders from the Tulsa Fire Department cut much of the vehicle’s roof away in their efforts to extract the driver so she could be hospitalized.

Classes in Holland Hall’s Upper School were canceled the day after the crash, with chaplains and counselors available for students and faculty.

“We are holding our community close as we mourn our beloved students, Mollie Buffington and Claire Esmond, and continue to pray for our student who is still hospitalized,” Holland Hall Head of School JP Culley said in an emailed statement late Tuesday. “We welcome prayers for our students, families, faculty and staff.”

A funeral service for Esmond is set for 1 p.m. March 1 at BattleCreek Church-Midtown, with arrangements by Fitzgerald Ivy and Southwood Colonial funeral homes. Her family asks that instead of flowers, memorial donations to honor her life be made to New Life Ranch.

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