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A 16-year-old Berkeley High School student lost control of a KIA sports utility vehicle around 8 a.m. Wednesday and rammed into a cement planter located alongside the school’s H Building. 

The unlicensed driver was fleeing from a hit and run accident that occurred in the 1700 block of Russell Street, according to Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. 

“A woman called to report that a black KIA Sportage had just hit her white Subaru Outback which had been parked in the block,” Kusmiss said. “The SUV was last seen headed eastbound on Russell Street. A moment later we received a report of a car turned over along Berkeley High School on Allston Way. We discovered that the incident was related. Apparently the 16-year-old boy had taken his mother’s car without permission from the 1700 block.” 

The driver injured his hand but was otherwise able to walk away unharmed from the “pretty dramatic collision,” Kusmiss said. 

“He was driving northbound on Martin Luther King Jr. Way and tried to make a quick eastbound turn on Allston Way when he lost control of the KIA. It flipped onto the driver’s side and slid across the sidewalk along the concrete barrier and stopped momentarily.” 

The young man was trapped inside the car until Berkeley police and fire department officials rescued him.  

Traffic on Allston Way was backed up until the car was flipped back and towed away. 

Although school had started at 8:30 a.m., a few students lingered around capturing the image on their cell phones. 

“The car grazed some of the vegetation and scratched the side of the wall, but the retrofitting paid off,” said district spokesperson Mark Coplan. 

Kusmiss said that the boy was taken in for questioning and then released. 

“His mother was understandably very upset,” she said. “He was technically arrested for the hit and run. Our youth services will do the follow up. It’s likely that he will not face any charges with the Juvenile D.A. Since juvenile crime is based on rehabilitation he will either be referred to verbal counseling or to the youth court.”