Saugus woman killed in Lynn crash

LYNN – Samantha Green loved her sports teams and was watching the Celtics in the first game of the NBA Finals against the Lakers just hours before she died in a horrific crash early Friday morning.The 22-year-old Saugonian was killed when her car swerved off Western Avenue and struck a tree.Lynn Police Lt. William Sharpe, in a statement, said Samantha Green was unresponsive to initial efforts to provide her emergency care. Officers responding at 12:58 a.m. found her trapped inside the white 2008 KIA sedan’s driver’s seat wearing a seat belt.”Paramedics determined the operator was deceased,” Sharpe stated.Green’s aunt Denise Heffernan said Friday afternoon the news has left the family stunned.Green was an only child and her mother Valerie was too broken up to speak, but Heffernan spoke readily of her niece.”She was wonderful, very bubbly, very happy,” she said. “She was a beautiful, beautiful girl.”Green didn’t graduate from Saugus High School, but her aunt said she got her G.E.D. and had recently finished a program at the Salter School to become a medical assistant, with honors.”She would have graduated August 12,” she said. “She was planning to go to nursing school.”Heffernan said Green’s greatest love were the Celtics and Bruins and her friends and family, the latter of which was large. Although she was an only child, she was one of 18 grandchildren and her aunt said she loved her cousins.”She was just a wonderful kid,” she said. “She could always make you laugh, she was goofy, funny and a beautiful girl.”An initial accident investigation found Green was traveling southbound into Lynn when the KIA left the roadway at Belleaire and Western avenues. The car climbed a short slope at 2 Western before striking the tree and crushing the KIA’s roof.Firefighters used Jaws of Life equipment to reach Green.Carrie Parker lives across Western from the accident scene.”There were four or five fire trucks and lots of police. It was pretty horrific. There wasn’t much they could do,” she said.The investigation remains active and police have not determined a cause. Parker said drivers often build up speed leaving Salem on the straightaway along Western into Lynn.