Nick Bailey had told his son Brett that the 16-year-old could not drive in north Fulton County after 4 p.m. on Fridays.
Bailey thought the traffic was too heavy and too dangerous in that area for inexperienced drivers.
But he was OK with his teenager driving to a football game with friends Friday night in Cumming. He didn't know that his son and his friend, Nathan Deafenbaugh, 17, had met friends, got into their car and went bowling in Duluth.
It was on their way home after a stop at Starbucks that Brett, of Ball Ground, and his friends, Nathan, of Alpharetta, Rebekkah Evans, of Duluth, 16, and Amanda Samford, 15, of Duluth, were killed when their car crashed after skidding on Medlock Bridge Road near the Chattahoochee River in north Fulton.
Witnesses said Rebekkah, who was driving a Mercedes Benz, lost control of the car while changing lanes. The four-door Mercedes jumped the median and hit a Jeep Cherokee head-on, according to Fulton police. The driver of the Cherokee, Michael Kakta, 42, of Alpharetta, was treated and released.
"I let him drive without hesitation," Nick Bailey said. "But not where they were going."
Doe Kirkland, principal of Sequoyah High School in Canton, where Brett and Nathan were juniors, said the rash of fatal car accidents involving teens makes her wish that students were not allowed to get behind the wheel of a car.
Since March, more than a dozen teens have been killed in driving accidents in the metro area, including another accident on Friday which killed an 18-year-old boy in Villa Rica.
Kirkland said Sequoyah has lost several students to various kinds of accidents in the school's 11-year history, including two wrestlers who were killed in a car accident three years ago.
"I wish none of them could drive until they were 21," Kirkland said. "It's gotten to where it's just all too common, all too frequent."
Authorities do not know whether Rebekkah's level of driving ability factored into the accident. They also do not know whether speed was a factor in the accident or whether the teens were wearing seat belts, said Fulton police Maj. Wenda Phifer. At this point there is no indication that drugs or alcohol was involved, Phifer said. The investigation into the crash is ongoing.
Bailey said when Brett didn't return on time he began looking for him.
"I went to Nathan's house and (Nathan's father) told me that Nathan was dead," Bailey said. "He didn't know if Brett was dead or not." Bailey then went to a hospital, but Brett wasn't there. He began calling hospitals until someone suggested that he call the morgue. That's where he found his son.
"Last Friday I told him he didn't need to be over there on Friday afternoons," Bailey said, recalling his warning to his son. "I guess they weren't thinking. They were just wanting to go."
Rebekkah and Amanda were best friends from when they both attended Providence Christian Academy in Lilburn, Amanda's relatives said. Nathan and Brett were both active in ROTC and had been friends since they started at Sequoyah, Kirkland said.
Brett was an honor student and a decorated ROTC cadet who this summer graduated from a leadership program at the Citadel, his father said. Brett played baseball and basketball and umpired baseball games, as his father did. He loved hunting, fishing, was active in his church, and was listed in Who's Who Among American High School Students, his family said.
Nathan was a vocalist in Sequoyah's choir, Kirkland said. Last summer his vocal talents took him to London, said Kim Story, a neighbor of the Deafenbaughs. Nathan loved music and sometimes played songs while he was hanging around outside his home. But it would be jazz or opera --- not your typical teen music.
"We kind of chuckled about that because it was so unusual for a kid of his age," Story said. "For a 17-year-old boy he had his act together."
Nathan and Brett were popular and nice kids --- a loss that will hit the student body hard when friends return to school after Labor Day, Kirkland said.
"I've already talked to my lead counselor and we will be ready Tuesday," Kirkland said.
Rebekkah's parents declined to be interviewed for this article.
Relatives said Amanda had recently decided she was going to become a missionary to share her love of God with others. The Duluth High School sophomore recently took a trip to Israel, where she was baptized in the Jordan River. Amanda sold candy bars to help pay for the trip, family members said.
Looking at a group photograph taken at the river, her cousin Susan Scrudder wiped away tears. Others were shadowed, but there seemed to be a light or glow on Amanda's face, Scrudder said.
"I told her mother that must be a comfort now," Scrudder said.
On Saturday, relatives found Amanda's day calendar open in her room: "When a loved one dies, it is natural for us to feel a sense of loss and even a deep loneliness. . . but even when we feel the pain of bereavement most intensely, we can also know of the gracious and loving presence of Christ most closely."
Visitation for Nathan will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Huey Funeral Home, 480 Main St., Canton. His funeral will be held Wednesday in Kokomo, Ind. Funeral arrangements for Brett, Amanda and Rebekkah were incomplete Saturday.
Staff writers Joshua B. Good and Jennifer Brett contributed to this article.
DYING YOUNG ON THE NORTHSIDE
Other north metro teen traffic fatalities
this year include:
June 29: 16-year-old Tommy Siragusa of Alpharetta, who had
his driver's license less than three months, died after the Ford Explorer he was
driving hit a puddle on Medlock Bridge Road and spun out of control. Jeff
Fields, 16, of Alpharetta, Steven McDonald, 16, and Kyle Brotherton, 14, both of
Duluth, also died.
June 8: Forsyth Central Comprehensive High School
sophomore Brian Herstowski, 16, died after losing control of his Geo Tracker on
a winding stretch of Bettis-Tribble Gap Road, just outside Cumming. His three
passengers survived.
May 19: Melissa Daun Middlebrooks, 17, and Sameca
Eccleston, 18, died after a two-car wreck on Old Norcross Road. The car
Middlebrooks was driving spun across the median and slammed into a pickup truck.
A third teen survived. All three attended Phoenix High School in Lilburn.
May
11: Adam Alfrey, 16, died on his way to Forsyth Central Comprehensive High
School in Cumming, where he was a junior. The BMW Adam was driving skidded off
the road and slammed into a utility pole. The 8:10 a.m. crash killed Adam and
his front-seat passenger, Steven Grant, 16. A third passenger survived.
May
9: Robert Hernandez, 12, died after the car he was riding in hit a speed bump in
the Stone Mountain Mobile Home Park, slammed into a tree and burst into flames.
Matthew Sartor, 16, died after a week in a coma. Driver Joey Hernandez, 14 at
the time of the wreck, was convicted as a juvenile on two counts of first-degree
vehicular homicide, DUI, reckless driving and driving without a license. He
received a two-year sentence.
March 16: Jason Brady, a 17-year-old Decatur
High senior, was killed when the Ford Explorer he was riding in skidded into the
path of a Ford Tempo on West Howard Avenue in Decatur. The driver, also a
Decatur High student, survived, as did three other passengers.
Georgia
driving deaths among ages 16-17
1995: 145
1996: 129
1997: 104
1998:
93*
* The last year figures were available.
Source: Georgia Department of
Public Safety
As of Aug. 29, there were more than 5.7 million drivers in
Georgia.
57,807 of them were under 16
154,402 were between 16 and
17
288,142 were between 18 and 20
Source: Georgia State Patrol