Speed. Inexperience.

The traffic accident that killed two Gwinnett County high school students on Tuesday was a textbook example of what can happen with a new driver behind the wheel, driving experts say.

The Mill Creek High School students died, police said, when a classmate lost control of his car on a curve and crashed into an oncoming truck.

The accident heightened the fears of local parents of young drivers and instructors who teach teens how to avoid collisions.

Retired Gwinnett County police Officer Bill Richardson was saddened when he learned about the crash in an e-mail from a former colleague. Richardson, who founded the parent education campaign "It Won't Happen to Me," keeps statistics on teen roadway fatalities in Gwinnett to share real-life lessons with parents.

"They are the first two this year [in Gwinnett] —- it's a tragedy," Richardson said.

He's seen fatalities like this too many times before. "Roughly 80 percent of kids involved in fatalities are the average Joe Blow out there who is driving beyond his means, allows distractions to come into play, is not paying attention and screws up."

Richardson said he was speaking in general and not about the circumstances of Tuesday's accident, which remains under investigation.

Sixteen-year-olds Michael Sefcik and John Paul Coleman III were killed in the crash that occurred Tuesday afternoon near Buford on Camp Branch Road.

Their classmate, Jonathan Bradley Peck, 16, the driver of the Chevrolet Monte Carlo that went out of control, was hospitalized at Gwinnett Medical Center with minor injuries.

Police said the speed of the Monte Carlo was a contributing factor.

Gwinnett County Public Schools provided counselors for students at Mill Creek who needed help on Wednesday coping with the loss.

"Our thoughts are with the families of the students involved," principal Jim Markham said in a statement. "We know that losing a friend or classmate is hard and we will continue our efforts to help our Mill Creek High School family deal with this."

School officials told students about the deaths Wednesday morning during an announcement.

Tom Drawhorn, 16, said he wept when he heard the message over the loud speaker. "I broke down and ran to the counselor's office," he said. "There was a crowd there of other kids, too."

Gwinnett County police said Peck was traveling southbound on Camp Branch between Ivy Creek Road and Trailing Ivy Way when he ran off the road at a curve, overcorrected and entered the opposite lane sideways. Peck's Chevrolet then struck a Ford utility truck.

The driver of the truck, 35-year-old Dominick Buscemi of Buford, was not injured in the crash.

Charges are pending against Peck, police said.

Both drivers and the passengers were wearing seat belts, police said.

For Sandy Maltby of Duluth, the mother of a new driver, word of the accident hit home. She was eating breakfast with her 15-year-old daughter, Kara, when she learned of the deaths on Wednesday.

Maltby has insisted that her daughter not only complete driver's education, but also take an accident avoidance class.

Now she is thinking about other precautions. Like pushing back the age her daughter is allowed to get her license. Kara hoped to have it at 16.

"I'd like to give it some extra time," Sandy Maltby said. "Because of all the accidents with teens, it is obvious there is more experience needed before they go out to the streets of Atlanta."

Alan Deighton, owner of New London Driving School in Loganville, said what upset him most about Tuesday's crash is the possibility that speed played a role.

"I wish students would realize that doing that sort of thing is going to kill them," he said.

On Saturday, he will use the crash as an example to share with 20 students who are scheduled to meet in a church parking lot to learn how to avoid collisions. "We want to save our students' lives."

Mill Creek High School was scheduled to offer a similar driver safety seminar on March 1. The workshop, which was to use police academy instructors to teach teens how to negotiate a sudden curve, was being organized by the school's PTSA. Because of the accident, the session has been postponed.

The New Driver Car Control Clinic, which will train students at a Turner Field parking lot this weekend, uses a simulation to show teens how to react to the same kind of accident that killed the two teens Tuesday.

After watching the video, students then practice on the road. Parents sit in the passenger seat as their teens are taught how to steer through cones and stop on a dime or recover if they have hit something.

"We show these kids how this particular crash begins, what happens in the middle and how they need to react," clinic founder David Thompson said. "You learn by practice. You have to expose them to this in order to make them safe. Once they get out in the highway and they haven't had the experience, they will make mistakes.''

Norcross mother Linda Edwards feels for the parents who lost their children in the crash, and she's glad that her 16-year-old, Mark, has completed advanced driving lessons.

Edwards is organizing the talk "Parents Deserve a Brake" at Greater Atlanta Christian School on March 1 to help parents learn more about getting road training for their teens.

Edwards said her son knows what to do if he mistakenly drives off the road. "He had to do that maneuver with me in the back seat," she said.

As parents are preparing to discuss how to keep their teens safe on the road, Mill Creek teens are turning to MySpace to share their feelings about the accident.

Tom Drawhorn said he changed his MySpace page to include a tribute to his two friends.

The 16-year-old last saw Michael Sefcik and Jon Peck, the driver of the Chevrolet, on Tuesday, in the school's halls. It was a casual encounter. He simply shook hands with them, asked how they were doing, and kept walking, he said in an interview.

Tom said Michael, who played clarinet with him in the school band, was learning to drive.

He would see him regularly after school at driver's ed class. Jon is a serious athlete —- a baseball player committed to physical fitness, Tom said.

"These people really didn't fit that picture at all, of a teen driver being irresponsible," Tom said.

"This was not the typical teen auto accident."

Mitzi Smith, 16, a junior at Mill Creek, said friends knew John Paul Coleman as Paul at school. Paul and Michael shared a passion for speed roller skating and often hung out together at Skate Country, a rink in Buford. Michael and Jon were best friends, she said. When the two didn't have their licenses, they walked everywhere together, Mitzi said.

"Last night was the worst," Mitzi said. "I couldn't breathe." She named four other friends who had died recently. "Every single one of them was in a car wreck."

Staff writer Laura Diamond contributed to this article.

UPCOMING PARENT AWARENESS AND DRIVE COACHING SEMINARS

Tuesday. Peachtree Ridge High School. Free for parents and $15 for young drivers. For more information, call 678-957-3103 or visit www.peachtreeridge.org.

New Driver Car Control Clinic has classes at Turner Field this weekend and in early March at Roswell High. Most are full, but some spaces are still available. The clinic returns to Turner Field in mid-March. Classes cost $159 per team. For more information, visit www.carcontrol.com or call 1-800-862-3277.

March 1. Greater Atlanta Christian School hosts "Parents Deserve a Brake," teen driving program. Seminar is free. For information, call the school at 770-243-2000.

Bill Richardson and his partner, Lauren Winborne, of "It Won't Happen to Me" regularly schedule talks to parents across the metro area. For other appearances of this program, visit www.itwonthappentome.org or call 770-289-8598.

DRIVESAFE4Life will postpone its March 1 program at Mill Creek. Other sessions are scheduled on March 10 at a Brasleton business park and March 17 at Grayson High School. The class costs $150. For more information, call Woodrow Gaines at 770-823-7823 or visit www.fearthis4life.org.