Girl, 15, Dies in Charles Crash

Athlete is County's 6th Recent Fatality

Stephanie Weir, 15, was a front-seat passenger in a car driven by a 17-year-old that crashed this morning. Weir was pronounced dead at the scene. (Charles County Public Schools)

A 15-year-old honor roll student died in a car crash on the way to school yesterday morning, becoming the sixth teenager in the past month to perish on the roads of semi-rural Charles County.

Stephanie Weir, a sophomore at Thomas Stone High School, was in the front passenger seat of a 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier that slammed into a tree, a wreck that left two other teens injured, one seriously.

"She was one of those kids who you knew was going to go do something fantastic," said Weir's ice hockey coach, Andy Parker. "Incredibly smart. . . . A coach's dream. She did everything you told her to do."

Shawn Feeney, a hockey teammate, went to the crash scene on Poplar Hill Road yesterday afternoon with three friends, one of whom said he was in a car that crashed in almost the same spot three years ago. "No matter who you were, she'd talk to you," Feeney said of Weir. "She was going somewhere in the world."

The fatality was the 12th involving a teenage driver in the Washington area in about a month, but no jurisdiction has been hit harder that Charles, a rapidly growing suburban county with long stretches of skinny, winding roads bordered by thick, solid trees.

"When you're on those roads, there's literally no room for error," said Joe Widmyer, who owns a driving school with locations across Maryland. "An inexperienced driver can so easily drive off the road."

The driver in yesterday's crash, Laura Ritter, 17, a senior at Thomas Stone, is a top student in her class and on the student government association's executive board, Principal L.C. Martin said. Ritter was flown yesterday morning to Prince George's Hospital Center, where she was listed in serious condition.

Another passenger, Jonathan Sudik, 16, was reported in good condition yesterday.

Investigators said they believe speed and driver error contributed to the crash, said Joseph C. Montminy, the county's assistant sheriff for operations. Ritter appeared to have veered to the right side of the road and then overcorrected, sending the Cavalier skidding sideways across the road, passenger side first, and into several trees, one of which was at least two feet in diameter at its base. The car then headed back across the roadway, coming to rest in a yard, the sheriff's office said.

"It was a pretty violent collision," Montminy said.

Investigators believe the three teens were wearing seat belts, he said. Ritter has had her license long enough to drive legally with other teenagers as passengers, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office said.

Sudik was expected to take a shuttle bus from Thomas Stone yesterday morning to North Point High School, where he is a junior. The three teens are from the Brandywine area, in northeastern Charles.