17-Year-Old Dies in Montgomery, the Seventh Victim in Md. in Recent Days
By Daniel de Vise and Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The silver Toyota Corolla carrying 17-year-old Christian Cruz and three friends on a midnight food run swerved off a slick Montgomery County road and hit an elm tree early yesterday, making him the seventh suburban Maryland teenager to die in a traffic accident in little more than a week. Neither Cruz nor any of his 15-year-old friends in the Corolla was licensed to drive.
Hours after Cruz's death, mourners gathered in La Plata and Fort Washington to eulogize two victims of an earlier wreck. Four students from La Plata High School were killed Nov. 6 when the teenage driver of the car they were in, speeding, overcorrected and spun into the path of a sport-utility vehicle.
The cycle of grief recalls fall 2004, when 15 young people died in the span of a month in Washington area crashes involving teenage drivers. A Maryland law enacted in response to those deaths could have prevented two of the most recent wrecks -- including the one that killed Cruz -- if the teens had obeyed it.
In 2005, Maryland lawmakers expanded a "graduated driver's license" system for the state's newest and youngest drivers. Licensed teenage drivers may not carry passengers younger than 18 who are not immediate family members during their first five months unless an adult is in the car. Teens are also barred from driving between midnight and 5 a.m. and from using a cellphone behind the wheel in their first two years of driving.
Jonathan Chapman was 16, too inexperienced to carry teenage passengers, when he drove four teens home last week from a basketball workout in Charles County. No one in the car was wearing a seat belt. He and three passengers were killed.
The state law is one of several enacted in recent years to protect younger drivers, along with a barrage of education and public-service appeals about the perils of driving while drinking, distracted or talking on a cellphone. As with any attempt to govern the young, the law doesn't work if teen drivers ignore it.
"Teenagers don't understand why this is so important sometimes, and that is so frustrating for those of us trying to protect them," said state Sen. Roy P. Dyson (D-St. Mary's), who sponsored the legislation.
Details of yesterday's crash remained sketchy, the investigation hampered by uncooperative witnesses. Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said it was not clear who was driving, although he expected answers by today.
"You've got four people in the car, all friends from school," he said. "Was being distracted a factor? Is the driver paying attention to driving?"
The boys, together for a Sunday-night sleepover, set out for food sometime past midnight. Cruz did not drive, according to his mother.
"It was raining; the road was wet," said Ana Maria Cruz, speaking in Spanish.
The boys were heading west along Bonifant Road through a wooded area of Wheaton when the driver lost control, skidding across the eastbound lane, off the road and into a tree. A piece of the car's silver body lay behind the bent tree trunk yesterday at the muddy accident site.
The Cruz family emigrated from the Salvadoran city of Ahuachapan, near the Guatemalan border, in 1987, Ana Maria Cruz said. Christian was born three years later and grew up in Silver Spring, attending Broad Acres Elementary School. He fell in love with American football and professional wrestling, the latter passion emblazoned on his shirt in the picture that adorns his school ID.
Cruz lived with his parents in a small apartment. At Springbrook High School, he "was in the middle -- not the best, not the worst," his mother recalled. He fell behind and started his fourth year as a junior, but he sought to catch up and graduate with his class in June.
A card circulated at Springbrook yesterday among his circle of friends. Several classmates suggested that he be memorialized with his class at graduation.
"Even though we call him a junior, he was really trying to pull things together to finish this year," said Michael Durso, principal of Springbrook. He and the students observed a moment of silence yesterday morning.
Two more lost lives were remembered yesterday morning by hundreds of people who filled churches in La Plata and Fort Washington.
At Fort Foote Baptist Church in Fort Washington, an open coffin held Jonathan Chapman, with his National Honor Society sash and a pair of drumsticks. A basketball sat atop the coffin, a symbol of his commitment to the La Plata High School basketball team and his dream to play in the National Basketball Association.
Lisa Chapman, Jonathan's mother, wept as she spoke of her son's lofty ambitions and early successes. He had hoped to attend Morehouse College and earn an engineering degree.
"He had a four-year plan taped to the mirror, and on the bottom it said, 'Trust in God,' " she said. "He had a list of 16 schools he wanted to apply to."
La Plata basketball players arrived at Fort Foote from First Baptist Church in La Plata, where they had mourned another teammate, 15-year-old Dionnte Swinson. A third player, Donte Segar, 14, was buried Saturday, and a funeral for Tavonne Alston, 16, is scheduled for Friday morning at Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Brandywine.
At the service for Dionnte, family and friends remembered his faith and service to others. Known to friends as Dion, he participated in youth ministries and was always proud to bring his friends to church, said Jacqueline Williams, a church member.
Katherine Miles, a mathematics teacher at La Plata High School, said the sophomore excelled in math, was talkative and "had more than enough life for everybody."
In addition to Cruz and the four La Plata students, two Calvert County teens died after a Nov. 5 collision between their Dodge Caravan and a box truck. Driver Alyson M. Purvis, 17, died immediately, and her brother Ryan, 14, died later. They and two other students were on their way to Northern High School in Owings.
That crash, like the others, involved a relatively inexperienced driver, a large number of passengers and a dangerous hour of travel. But Alyson Purvis had been licensed long enough to carry her passengers to school.
Staff writers Christy Goodman and Debbi Wilgoren and researcher Rena Kirsch contributed to this report.
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