Girl, 15, Dies in Charles Crash
Athlete is County's 6th Recent Fatality

By Dan Morse and Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 29, 2007

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.

All but one of the teenage drivers involved in fatal accidents on suburban Maryland roads in the past month had valid licenses and were driving in daylight. Yet some combination of speed, failure to use seat belts, distractions in the car, bad weather and inexperience appears to have played a role in 11 deaths, police say.

Traffic safety experts say some or all of those factors are present in nearly all crashes involving teenagers, a pattern that results in thousands of deaths each year. Teenagers are three times more likely than adults to die in car crashes, according to AAA.

For the past eight years, all Maryland teenagers have learned to drive based on the same state-mandated curriculum, whether they are likely to be driving on the Capital Beltway, the congested streets of Baltimore or the winding country roads of Waldorf. That ensures a basic level of quality of instruction, teachers say, but it leaves little room for customization based on the local terrain.

"It's much more dangerous somewhere like Charles," Widmyer said. "And when we only have six hours in the car with them, I'm not sure how much you can get across."

No matter what they might be taught, though, many teenagers drive too fast.

"What teenager doesn't speed?" asked Feeney, Weir's teammate. "These back roads are not much to be speeding on."

With Feeney was Randy Johnson, a senior at Thomas Stone. He said that he was a passenger in a car that went off the same road three years ago. Johnson said he was knocked out briefly but walked away from the crash.

Johnson said the only time he drives fast is in his pickup dragster at a sanctioned raceway. "I'd rather do it somewhere that's straight than speed down" a rural, winding road, he said.

Weir played guitar in the school jazz band and was known to many as "Steph." She posted A's and B's in her first quarter this year and was taking Advanced Placement U.S. History, the only AP class sophomores can take, said Martin, the principal. The rest of her courses were honors classes.

She excelled in field hockey, playing as a freshman, and was the most valuable player for offense on her team this year, said her field hockey coach, Melissa Hatch.

"She loved life," Hatch said.

Staff writer Jeff Nelson contributed to this report.