Matthew Hamilton Molen, who had his license only three months, was killed when his car crashed on Spalding Drive in Dunwoody, police said.

An official at the school he attended said the youth was returning home from a basketball game when the car wrecked.

"[The death] is hitting the community very hard," said Steven Gende, director of development and public affairs at Holy Innocents Episcopal School, where Matthew attended classes.

"Our students, of course, are very upset, and our teachers as well. We feel a deep sense of hurt and loss," Gende said.

Matthew, of nearby Brooke Farm Drive in DeKalb County, was driving a 2001 Jaguar XKR when he lost control of the car at about 9:25 p.m. Tuesday, said Fulton County police.

Fulton police Lt. Sue Miller said investigators were looking at excessive speed as the cause of the crash, which occurred near the Rivergate and River Oaks subdivisions.

As the teen was traveling eastbound on Spalding, the Jaguar reportedly went off the right side of the road, east of Stoney Kirk Close, where it hit a tree and flipped over.

It took emergency personnel more than two hours to remove the teen's body from the wrecked Jaguar. No one else was in the car when it crashed, Miller said.

Matthew was a sophomore. He had attended the school since he was 3 years old, the headmaster said.

Gende called Matthew an "outgoing student" who played on the varsity baseball team at the Sandy Springs school, which has about 400 students in the upper school.

When students arrived at the school this morning, they were sent into adviser groups, and chaplains and counselors were available all day. At 8:30, a service was held for the students and faculty.

"This was not a memorial service, but a time to hear that the healing hand of God was there for us all," Gende said.

The teen's father, Chris D. Molen, is a partner in the international law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker. The elder Molen's practice is concentrated in complex commercial and banking transactions, according to the firm's Web site.

The wreck occurred just days after Gov. Roy Barnes announced that he would attempt to raise the driving age to 17 in metro Atlanta - an effort that ironically could have prevented Tuesday night's crash - and just hours before the governor issued a call for stricter driving curfews for teens.

Under the Barnes plan, which was unveiled Friday, 16-year-olds would not be permitted to drive alone in Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. That list could be expanded to include other metro counties.

Fulton County has had 36 fatal accidents involving teen drivers over the past four years, second only to Gwinnett's 38 and followed by 35 in Cobb and 34 in DeKalb. Last year, two crashes in north Fulton County involving 16-year-old drivers at the beginning and end of summer killed eight teens.