A 33-year-old Salem man took four minors on a joyride on Marion County backroads, drinking and smoking marijuana with them before crashing on Sunday evening, a survivor of the crash told police. The Marion County District Attorney’s Office charged Christopher Atkinson on Monday with manslaughte r, assault, reckless driving and furnishing alcohol to minors following the crash that killed 16-year-old Zolayha Johnson, a junior at McNary High School. Three other minors, including Johnson’s 12-year-old sister, a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, were also in the car. The surviving 16-year-old told police Atkinson was speeding up to 120 miles per hour, according to an affidavit from Marion County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Caleb Mott. Court records indicate Atkinson wasn’t a parent or guardian of any of the minors in the car. Atkinson estimated he was driving close to 100 miles per hour on a curvy stretch of Southeast Southeast Fern Ridge Road outside Stayton with an advisory speed limit of 25 mph. He told police he was driving too fast and “didn’t make the corner.” The Mercedes SUV crashed with such force that car parts were strewn across the roadway and the rear of the vehicle was “crushed or entirely missing,” Mott wrote. It came to rest upside down against a tree. The youngest child in the car had injuries so severe that she was flown to a Portland hospital. The surviving 16-year-old girl told police “her friend” Atkinson texted her Sunday evening saying he was coming to pick her up, arriving at her home in Keizer around 7 p.m., according to the affidavit. They then picked up Johnson and her sister at their Keizer home and the 14-year-old boy at his home in Hayesville. The group went to a corner store on Northeast Market Street, where Atkinson bought a large “buzz ball,” a flavored cocktail.  The girl said Atkinson took them to a park, where he took two or three shots and shared alcohol with the group. He then smoked a large amount of marijuana using a vape pen, which he also shared. The group decided to go joyriding. She blacked out when the car crashed, she told police. Atkinson was taken to Salem Hospital and assessed for intoxication. His blood alcohol content was 0.02%, below the legal limit. Mott wrote that Atkinson displayed several signs of impairment consistent with marijuana use but passed other impairment tests. Local schools are on spring break this week. McNary Principal Scott Gragg announced Johnson’s death in a message sent to families Monday. “It’s with a very heavy heart that I share difficult news about the passing of one of our students, Zolayha Johnson, who was involved in a traffic accident this weekend. Zolayha was a junior at McNary and touched the lives of many people. Every loss of a student’s life impacts us all and she will be greatly missed,” Gragg wrote. He said the school will share information about counseling services available when school resumes next week. Families can also access Care Solace, a confidential online mental health support website. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: rachel@salemreporter.com or 503-575-1241. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE – If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Salem man shared alcohol, marijuana with minors before fatal joyride, police affidavit says appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less