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A 16-year-old boy died over the weekend, two days after he struck a freeway bridge in Inglewood after he stood up in the open-roof area of a double-decker tour bus.Mason Zisette, who had recently finished his sophomore year at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, was on the Starline Tours bus celebrating a classmate's birthday on Thursday when the incident occurred around 7:45 p.m., according to the L.A. Daily News. The tour bus was traveling at about 45 mph on the 405 Freeway when it went under the Arbor Vitae Street overpass and Zisette slammed into it.
One of Zisette's best friends, 17-year-old Bowen Boullianne, said that they were standing on the top section of the bus looking at the view and ducking every time they saw an overpass. However, Zisette had his back turned to the overpass while he was talking to his friends with his arms in the air.
“He hit his hands first on the overpass and got whiplash from (the impact)," Boullianne said. It cranked his head back and he hit the top part of the bus, the glass section,” “He hit the back of his head really hard. He was instantly knocked out.”
Boullianne said they were never told by anyone to sit down at any point during the ride.
The L.A. Coroner's Office said that Zisette died of his injuries on Saturday afternoon, and officials are still determining the cause of his death.
Zisette was on the tour bus with about 45 other passengers, most of whom were under 18 and some were accompanied by adult chaperons.
He was a varsity tennis player at his school. Joe Ciasulli, his coach of more than two years, talked to KPCC about Zisette: "[He was] a fun guy to be around, always laughing, always joking. I spent most of my time in practice trying to keep him focused on tennis rather than just being lively."
