Girl, 15, is left fighting for her life in a coma after horrific accident while excitedly celebrating homecoming

A teenage girl is clinging to life in a Utah childrens hospital after being flung head-first onto a sidewalk while car surfing.

Ava Broadhead, 15, joined friends at a park outside Salt Lake City on Wednesday evening after her schools homecoming parade was cancelled due to bad air quality.

Now the young dance fan is in a coma with severe brain damage, and her distraught mother has been inundated by messages from people whose children have fallen victim to the same lethal craze.

Im sure it was, Hey! We should do this, it would be fun, and not thinking, Oh wait, what if I flung off this car, said mom Kandis George of West Valley City.

All these things are going to stop in my life because in the moment that seems fun.

Ava Broadhead, 15, had picked out this dress to wear at her homecoming dance on Saturday

But she spent Saturday fighting for her life in an induced coma after car surfing with friends

The sophomore at was looking forward to dancing with her drill team at the homecoming football game, when events were suddenly cancelled at Cypress High School on the western edge of Salt Lake City.

Ava and her friends headed for the nearby Magna Regional Park where the tragic accident took place at around 9pm.

The victim was on top of that car and as the car was driving around, the victim fell off and unfortunately, pavement isnt as forgiving and the victim hit their head, Sgt Aymee Race of the Unified Police Department told Fox13.

These people who are getting on top of these cars and doing the car surfing once they fall, you know, its unpredictable what type of injuries they can sustain.

The most recent study by the CDC counted 58 car surfing deaths in the 18 years to 2008, but the death toll has continued to spiral, exacerbated by social media.

In May last year a 16-year-old boy died in Douglas County, Colorado, after witnesses saw back seat passengers hanging out of the cars windows before it crashed.

The Douglas County Sheriffs Office said they had received six reports of car surfing incidents in less than a month around the time of the death, with some of the vehicles travelling at up to 55mph.

That can be anywhere from kids hanging on the tops of cars to the back of cars standing up through their windows and then going either at so rates of speed or high rates of speed on these vehicles, Sgt Race told Fox13.

Unfortunately, with social media, theres ebbs and flows to these types of trends and right now this trend has been picking up, I mean, it stems from the eighties and movies to 10 years ago, this was a significant trend and now here we are again with this trend picking up.

Mom Kandis George with daughters Elle, left, and Ava, right

Avas mother commandeered her daughters Facebook page to deliver a stark and  uncompromising message to her pals

Avas dad David Broadhead asked friends to pray for his daughter. This weekend is extremely critical for her progress, he wrote on Facebook

Avas friends rang her mother on Wednesday night to tell her about the accident, and George found her daughter in a critical condition in the citys Primary Childrens Hospital.

She had an extreme brain injury and she needed to be rushed into brain surgery and it was a life-or-death surgery, George said.

She is in a medical induced coma, just staying stable, letting her brain rest.

The parade was canceled because of the bad air quality and so these kids were all ready to go out and have a good time, she added.

They decided to do the trend thats seen on, I dont believe its seen on TikTok anymore, but you can search it up other places called car surfing.

Avas father David Broadhead said his daughter is in extreme critical condition but stable.

This weekend is extremely critical for her progress, he wrote on Facebook.

I know angels guided the surgeons to do what they needed to do to release the pressure on her brain. I am asking everyone please pray for my beautiful daughter will you? Please?

TikTok has blocked searches for the term car surfing, but Avas mother says that seems to have done little to dent its popularity.

I have gotten upwards of 30 plus messages off people that said this happened to my nephew, this happened to my neighbor, this exact situation happened to my friends daughter, she said.

Theyre having the same injuries, these traumatic brain injuries that are happening time and time again. And we need to do something.

We need to bring awareness because its not stopping. These kids think its fun. It was on Teen Wolf and its been glamourized by Hollywood.

Avas friends in the Salt Lake Community College Dance Company sent her a get-well message

Her friends in the Cypress High School drill squad echoed the sentiment 

Ava has yet to respond to their messages as she fights for her life in a childrens hospital

Avas friends in the Salt Lake Community College Dance Company have posted a get-well message on their Instagram page, and George has commandeered her daughters Facebook page to deliver an uncompromising message to her pals.

Hello everyone, I am Ava and actually my mom is writing this, she wrote. The reason she is writing this is because I am in a coma at Primary Childrens Hospital while I heal from an emergency brain surgery that I underwent late Wednesday night.

So why did I need brain surgery? Because I decided to do the trendy thing of car surfing and I was thrown from car and suffered extreme brain trauma.

Now I am wearing a hospital gown, half my head is shaved (so much for cute hair) and Ill be sleeping the homecoming weekend away trying to heal my brain.

This is going to be a long road, one where I will have to relearn how to walk, tie my shoes and brush my teeth.

A GoFundMe page has been set up with a $100,000 target to help with Avas mountainous medical bills as she struggles to pull back from the brink.

I cant imagine a future with Ava not being Ava, her mother said. It will take months if not years to, to recover from it.