[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 8/12/02
]
Mourning parents of teen wreck victim reach
out
Two DeKalb high school students killed
in separate accidents
By RALPH ELLIS
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
James Thornton's parents have a simple
message for their son's friends who
come by to express sympathy.
"We
tell them to slow down and not have music playing so loud and [not] have
a
lot of passengers," Ora Thornton said Sunday.
"I always say, 'Be
responsible for your life,' " said Lovell Thornton. "And
for someone else's
life."
The Thorntons hope to help prevent the kind of highway violence
that took
the lives of James, 17, and Doug Breffle, 16, in separate wrecks on
DeKalb
County roads this weekend.
DeKalb County police said that in
both cases, the teenagers at the wheel
were going much too fast. They
speculate that the youths may have been
blowing off steam before going back
to school.
"This is the last weekend of vacation," said DeKalb police
investigator
Charles Thomas. "Teenagers are getting together to kick off the
new year and
aren't being responsible enough."
Bishop Eddie Long,
pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in
Lithonia, one of DeKalb
County's largest churches, took note of the death
toll during a Sunday
service.
"One of the worst feelings, one of the worst tragedies you will
have is if
you're driving a car and one of your friends gets killed," he told
a group
of school-bound youths he called out from the
congregation.
The drivers in both wrecks were 16. James Thornton, a
Lithonia High School
student, was a back seat passenger in a Honda Accord
when it clipped several
trees around midnight Friday and smashed into an iron
fence on Flakes Mill
Road near the Henry County line. Three of the four
people in the car were
ejected, leaving James dead. A 14-year-old boy
remained in critical
condition Sunday at DeKalb Medical Center. The other two
had been released
from the hospital.
About 26 hours later, Doug
Breffle, a Dunwoody High student, was fatally
injured when a Toyota Camry he
was driving overturned and smashed into a
tree on Tilly Mill Road in north
DeKalb County. A 16-year-old passenger was
injured.
Police released
only the names of the youths killed in the wrecks.
"It's going to be a
different and somber day, but we will do our best to
keep things as normal as
possible while being sensitive to the needs of
students and staff," said
Sterling Thomas, executive assistant to DeKalb
Superintendent Johnny Brown.
Grief counselors will be on hand at both
schools this morning.
The
Thorntons said James made good grades and was a percussionist in the
school
band. He took flying lessons and wanted to become a pilot. "He always
pursued
that," Ora Lovell said.
They said their son was already a safe driver and
usually took his own car
when he went out. They said they allowed him to ride
with friends Friday
night because the party he was going to wasn't far away.
The teenagers were
coming home when the crash occurred.
Doug was a
varsity wrestler and football player at Dunwoody High.
One of Doug's
coaches said the personable junior was not as single-minded as
some
athletes.
"We'd tell our kids to focus on wrestling, football and school,
and he
wasn't totally focused on any of those," said Jim Moeller,
Dunwoody's
wrestling and assistant football coach. "He was totally focused on
making
other people happy. A completely unselfish guy."
The weekend
wrecks are the latest of several since July in metro Atlanta
involving
teenagers. On Aug. 2, a 16-year-old passenger was killed when a
teen driver
crashed in Henry County. On July 27, an 18-year-old driver lost
control of
his car in Douglasville, killing a 17-year-old passenger. A
17-year-old girl
died July 10 when her car ran off the road in Acworth.
Georgia has
toughened its teen driving laws in recent years. Amendments to
the Teenage
Adult Driver Responsibility Act went into effect Jan. 1,
requiring parents or
guardians to verify that their teens have taken
driver's education or gotten
personal instruction behind the wheel.
For the first six months that a
16-year-old has a license, he or she cannot
carry passengers who aren't
family members. And a new curfew prohibits 16-
and 17-year-olds from driving
between midnight and 6 a.m.
Police said they don't know if the teens in
the DeKalb wrecks violated any
of those restrictions. Charges had not been
filed in either of the wrecks
Sunday.
A spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. Mark
Taylor, who pushed the tougher laws, said
the rash of recent wrecks does not
mean the restrictions have failed.
Kristi Huller said recent statistics
show a 28.6 percent decline in the
number of fatal wrecks involving drivers
ages 16 and 17 since the Teenage
and Adult Driver Responsibility Act was
first enacted in July 1997. Huller
also said the newest and toughest measures
only went into effect Jan. 1 and
haven't been tested by time.
"Before
blaming it on the laws, you've got to give it time to cycle
through," she
said.
-- Staff writers Rhonda Cook and Larry Hartstein contributed to
this
article.