METRO	TODAY • August 28, 2001

YOUNG --- AND GONE: Weekend wrecks kill 4 more teen drivers
Jim Galloway - Staff
Tuesday, August 28, 2001

It's a grim back-to-school ritual. Counselors trooped into classrooms Monday to help students cope with a weekend of carnage on the roads. And to help them learn, or relearn, that a driver's license doesn't come with a guarantee of immortality.

Weekend wrecks took the lives of teenagers in DeKalb, Hall, Morgan and Bibb counties, bringing to at least 10 the number of Georgia teens killed on the roads in nine days. Victims included a budding song-and-dance man, a future lawyer and a construction worker.

It was the biggest spate of teen driving deaths since the Legislature wrestled with the issue this spring, and it provided officials another opportunity to stop and ponder.

Gov. Roy Barnes addressed the issue Monday at Tucker High School in DeKalb County. He was there with Richard Petty and other NASCAR greats for a previously scheduled assembly to push a new safe-driving program.

The governor hinted he might take another shot at raising the driving age to 17. He said teens need to be older, have more experience and be under stricter curfews before driving alone. These are different times, and different roads, he said.

"In my day we were lucky if we just had AM radio," Barnes said, referring to distractions young drivers face. "Nobody dreamed of driving while talking on the phone."

Meanwhile, some parents tortured themselves with second-guessing.

Mike Railey of Canton had made a rule for his son, Jeremy, as the 16-year-old earned his driver's license three weeks ago: Only one friend in the car while you drive.

The father was echoing a state law that will go into effect Jan. 1, prohibiting teen drivers from having any nonfamily passengers for the first six months they are licensed.

"He was a safe driver. His friends would make fun of him, saying he drove like a little old lady," Jeremy's father said. Jeremy, who was wearing his seat belt, lost control of his 1990 Mazda RX-7 on Wednesday, going just a little too fast around a curve on Cokers Chapel Road. The car strayed into the path of a Ford Explorer.

Jeremy's passenger and two others were injured. The funeral for Jeremy, who had long-range hopes to go to law school, was Saturday.

Jeremy was the second 16-year-old driver at Cherokee High to die within a week. The school had just received a state grant to provide more programs on safe driving.

Sunday night in south DeKalb County, Jekonni Barber, 18, was killed when the car he was driving pulled into the path of a pickup truck at the intersection of River and Snapfinger roads. The 16-year-old driver of the pickup truck was hospitalized but not seriously injured. He was not charged.

Barber had paid for his 1985 BMW with money he earned as a singer, dancer and actor. He was a star performer in the legendary Freddie Hendricks Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, known for electrifying musical theater productions.

The young talent performed in South Africa, Belgium and the Netherlands, and appears in a yet-to-be-aired Coca-Cola commercial. Barber had recently made a deposit on an apartment near Columbia College in Chicago, where he planned to study music composition.

Clifton and Deborah Barber had already lost a child to a traffic accident, 18 years ago when Jekonni was 2 months old. "That's why this is exceptionally hard for the family," said the bereaved father. "This is the second time we're going through this."

The cause and circumstances of the other teen traffic fatalities varied. Some involved speed, some involved alcohol, some could be chalked up to inexperience:

> Christian D. Johnson, 16, a Cherokee High School student, died from injuries sustained in a 4 a.m. crash Aug. 19. His father, Walter Johnson, had tried to encourage him to stay in school by offering the reward of a driver's license and, eventually, a car.

According to police, Christian was found in a stolen car, which had been driven through a stop sign at Upper Burris Road in Cherokee County and slammed into an embankment. He was not wearing a seat belt. His father didn't realize the boy had sneaked away until police arrived to tell him of the accident. His son died the next day.

> Jenna Ray, 14, of Paulding County, was killed Wednesday when the 16-year-old driver of a pickup truck in which she was riding lost control on a curve and crashed in Bartow County. Georgia State Patrol spokesman Jim Shuler said the girl, who was not wearing a seat belt, was partially ejected through a window of the truck when it struck an embankment and rolled over.

> Alcohol and speeding contributed to the death Saturday night of 18-year-old Lazaro Chavez Perez of Gainesville, investigators said. Perez, a construction worker, lost control of his 1973 Ford F-100 pickup near his home on Vaughndale Circle, crossed the center line and slammed into a tree. The impact threw Perez out of the truck and rolled the vehicle over him. He was not wearing a seat belt, nor was he required to. State law exempts drivers of pickup trucks.

> Also in Hall County on Saturday night, Justin K. Payne, 18, of Oakwood was alone in a 1996 Jeep Cherokee when he ran off Stephens Road, said Trooper Robert Haley of the Georgia State Patrol. Payne traveled nearly 250 feet off the roadway before apparently overcorrecting and crossing back over the road and overturning. Payne, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from car.

> In Middle Georgia, a wreck Saturday near Macon left two Bibb County teens dead. Albert Hall, a spokesman for the Bibb County Sheriff's Department, identified the driver as Emmanuel Deguzman, 19. His passenger, Joshua Dumelod, 16, was also killed in the wreck.

> In Morgan County east of Atlanta, 17-year-old Brandon Tolbert was killed in a wreck early Saturday morning on Ga. 24.

> And 10 days ago, in Gordon County in northwest Georgia, 16-year-old Andrew Jackson of Plainville was driving on Ga. 53 when he attempted to pass a turning vehicle and slammed his Ford Ranger pickup head-on into a Ford Crown Victoria, according to Georgia State Patrol dispatchers. Jackson died the following day, on his 17th birthday.

Exactly how many teens have died on Georgia roads this year is hard to say. The state's system for counting highway fatalities has deteriorated to the point that the Federal Highway Administration has threatened Georgia's federal highway funding.

"The process is in shambles," said Tim Burgess, commissioner of the state's new Department of Motor Vehicle Safety. Previously, the responsibility for counting road deaths was the responsibility of the Department of Public Safety.

But even using recycled data, statisticians have generated some startling facts.

Example: The most dangerous hour for teen drivers and their passengers is immediately after school, according to the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. Of 47 fatalities in which teen drivers were involved in 1999, more than one-third of the accidents occurred between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.; 11 were between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Another harsh fact: Last year, in the six-month period ending in September, 16 teens died in accidents involving 16-year-old drivers.

Yet another: In 1999, nearly 70 percent of fatally injured teens were not wearing seat belts. Three of four male teens killed in wrecks were unbuckled; one of two female teens killed was not wearing a seat belt.

Mike Morris, Craig Schneider, Chris Reinolds, Duane Stanford, Henry Farber, Jennifer Brett and Christopher Quinn contributed to this article.