Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 21, 1994 TAG: 9405230167
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER Note: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the glossy pages of Animo, the high school yearbook, several student photographs are eerily different from the others, set apart by bold, black lines.
Almost every other edition of this year's Eagle, the high school's monthly newspaper, has carried an obituary.
Four young men and one young woman under age 21, all either students or graduates of the school, were killed in automobile accidents this school year.
"I don't think we've had a year that's been this bad relative to fatalities," said Ray Albanowski, chairman of thecommittee that plans the high school's alcohol-free after-prom party.
"Just to see those kids the day after a fatality; I hope that it registers on them that 'There, but for the grace of God, go I.'"
Indeed, when a member of the school community is killed in a car wreck, students seem shell-shocked. In the November issue of the Eagle, the newspaper staff detailed the toll these fatalities take on family and friends and urged caution for students who drive.
The high school also has aggressive prevention programs, including Drug Abuse Resistance Education and Students Against Drunk Driving.
None of the crashes that killed the five young people involved alcohol or drugs. And the absence of an obvious cause such as driving under the influence leaves no clear solution for combating the epidemic.
"I don't know what the real answers are, but I think if they'd lower the speed limits and start enforcing the law, it would help," said the Rev. Donald Haymaker, whose 18-year-old son, David, a senior at the high school, was killed when his car struck a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
"When they don't stop these kids from running, they feel like they have a license to speed."
Haymaker said the county also should consider widening the roads, particularly ones that wind around the increasingly congested Smith Mountain Lake area.
A letter sent to the Roanoke Times & World-News by the Red Valley and Rocky Mount Traffic Watch points out possible factors leading to crashes.
"Stroll through the high school parking lot and observe the fleet of heaps driven by the students," it reads. "Flimsily constructed, bald-tired machines are the means of transportation for many students."
The letter also observes that teen-agers learn good and bad driving habits from their parents and from school bus drivers.
Deborah Myers said the state should raise the age at which teens can obtain learner's permits from 15 years and 8 months to 17.
"If they get it later, they'll take more responsibility," she said.
Her son, Richard Bradley Myers, was killed after a Nov. 5 car wreck, a day after celebrating his 16th birthday.
Losing Brad, a fun-loving sophomore at the school, has left a void in her home, Myers said.
"There's no laughter any more," she said. "You miss the jokes and the wisecracks he used to say."
Even people who were barely acquainted with Greg Perdue were saddened by his death.
Perdue, an alumnus of the school and a freshman at Ferrum College, was killed March 20, a day before his 19th birthday.
Just the other day, Joan Hodges, the mother of 16-year-old April, got a call from a recruiter for the Air National Guard. April Hodges, a junior who was never too enthusiastic about school, was looking forward to joining the guard this summer and pursuing a career after completing her senior year.
She was killed early Nov. 28 when she lost control of a car on Virginia 674 in Rocky Mount.
An hour and a half earlier, Kerri Brent Harrison, 19, was a passenger in a car traveling north on U.S. 220 when the driver lost control and hit a guardrail. Harrison was thrown from the car and was pronounced dead at Community Hospital.
Not all of the deaths that have touched students at the high school have been of their peers, or the result of accidents.
The school lost a role model and confidante in sheriff's Deputy Robert DeWindt, who died Feb.12 after suffering a heart attack. DeWindt was a DARE instructor, cautioning students against drug abuse.
Albanowski said this string of deaths should be enough to alarm students into adopting safer driving habits.
Despite all the reminders, though, the sense of immortality that marks adolescence still exists and may keep some students from getting the message.
"I don't know anybody who's been killed," said T.C. Cundiff, a 17-year-old senior. "I don't buckle up."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB