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Chuck Crow / The Plain Dealer
Sean Egan embraces Brandon Davies as the Brunswick High School students mourn at the site of a fatal crash on Boston Road in Columbia Township on Sunday.
A car carrying five teenagers went airborne as it sped over railroad tracks early Sunday and crashed, killing the 18-year-old driver hours before his high school graduation and two of his passengers, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.
A fourth teen, who was airlifted from the scene, died Monday at the Metrohealth Medical Center, the Plain Dealer reported.
Less than 13 hours after the crash, Brunswick High School students left empty seats covered with flowers at their graduation ceremony to remember driver Jeffrey Chaya and Kevin Fox, the student who died Monday.
"It was very sad," Superintendent Michael Mayell said after the commencement ceremony at the University of Akron. "There were a lot of tears."
The 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier was traveling at a high speed just after midnight when Chaya lost control in Columbia Township in northeast Ohio, troopers at the Elyria post said. The car went airborne and off the right side of the roadway, then swerved across the left side of the road, hit a ditch and tree, then flipped over, according to the troopers' report.
Chaya, front-seat passenger Blake Bartchak, 17, and back-seat passenger Lexi Poerner, 16, died in the crash, according to The Chronicle-Telegram newspaper.
Cleveland's Plain Dealer reported that Chaya and Bartchak were close friends, having first met in fourth grade when Chaya moved to the neighborhood. The two were together "constantly," Chaya's parents told the newspaper.
Fox, a back-seat passenger, was thrown from the car into a ditch, troopers said. He was flown to Cleveland Metro Health Medical Center where he died Monday.
The fifth person in the car, identified by troopers as 17-year-old Julia Romito, was taken to Southwest General Hospital. The Plain-Dealer said reported she was in stable condition in surgical intensive care.
Peggy Turbett / The Plain Dealer
Colin Curtis, left and Sobhit Haribakthi, seniors who graduated from Brunswick High School Sunday, grieve during a prayer service at St. Ambrose Church..
'Very popular students'
Fox and Chaya were called during the commencement, which included a moment of silence and comments about the tragic accident, Mayell said. More than 600 students graduated Sunday.
Grief counselors were available to meet with students at the high school later in the day. Memorial services were held Sunday evening at a church and a performing arts center.
"We want to allow the families to grieve in peace, and do whatever we can to get through this very tragic situation," Mayell said.
Troopers were still investigating the crash Sunday. They said the only confirmed factor was unsafe speed, although they were still calculating the car's estimated speed.
Peggy Turbett / The Plain Dealer
Angel Smith, left, Samantha Aborub, and Charlotte Sigel, friends of Lexi Poerner and graduates of Brunswick High School in 2010, mourn during the candelight service for Brunswick High School victims.
Mayell has known Poerner's family for years, and said the students who were killed were well known at school, taking part in school activities and volunteering.
"They were very popular students, very well-liked," Mayell said. "We've always been a very tight-knit community," he said. "It's one of those things that happens that I just don't get."
Chaya, a wide receiver on the Brunswick High football team, was the kind of teen with a lot of "best friends," his mother Paula Chaya told the Plain Dealer.
"He just loved being around his friends, and he had a ton of people who loved him," she told the newspaper.
Chaya had posted Saturday on his Twitter account: "Weird to think graduation is tomorrow time does fly big time."
On Saturday, graduating seniors at another northeast Ohio high school wore special red and black ribbons as a sign of unity and remembrance in the aftermath of the Feb. 27 Chardon school shootings that killed three students and wounded two others.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Just a good thing they didn't hit & kill some innocent person just driving or walking along the same route !!
Yeah, that is a very good thing, you miserable creep
Sad and senseless. I don't want to be harsh, but everyone knows, or should know, a car full of teens isn't conducive to safe driving. This happens every year near graduation, and prom. Its got to stop. What is a 18 year old doing out after midnight with a car full of teens? I know he is an adult, but the parents should have SOME influence. People are mad because these types of tragedies are preventable. It's the people left alive and their friends that have to bear the sorrow.
I guess going to high school didn't teach these boys a darn thing.....especially the driver. In my opinion this one should be chalk-up to " stupid is, as stupid does." Looking at the crash site in the photo above I see the railroad tracks in the backgroud that are laid on a small hill....driving his Chevy Cavalier at a high rate of speed over railroad tracks....to me....is not a very bright idea. Probably when the car landed after being airborne the possiblity of a front tire or tires and /or the rims benting or being ripped off from crushing hard down on the road causing him to lose control. Maybe the other kids in this small urban Township have done that stunt before....but in a truck that can withstand the impact after going over the RR tracks....not a low to the ground Chevy Cavalier.
If it were me....I would rather have been late to graduation....than not at all..which is the case here. No sorrow from me.
You are so warm and loving. Give your kids or grandkids a good long bath in boiling oil you savage.
Speeding and not wearing seatbelts.
What a waste.
Almost every high school class loses one or two students in car accidents because of speeding. We can never get through to everyone for some reason. Just DON'T do it! You are not infallible and you are only lucky if you don't get in a car accident speeding. Why do older folks not speed like that? Because we know what can happen! STOP IT! This is really tragic. This kid speeding not only killed himself but 3 other young students. 5 kids in the car - 4 deaths - maybe, if lucky, the 5th will survive. Wow, absolutely tragic! My sincere condolences to all the families. Way too much pain!
Teens, please! I don't care how 'cool' you think it is, DO NOT SPEED! It takes one second for you to be dead. Save your parents from receiving that phone call late at night to tell them the cops are cleaning your bodies off the street. Please, just STOP IT!
At 18, my brother was lucky enough to survive sliding through a red light on a patch of black ice & being t-boned by a much larger truck. Oddly enough, the only thing that saved his life was the fact that he was not wearing his seatbelt. If he had been trapped in his seat & unable to be pushed into the passenger's seat, he would have died at the scene (according to the paramedics).
My point is, this type of thing can happen to ANYONE, & you learn that life is much more fragile than you realize when you're young.
Your brother's situation was unusual. I don't think kids should make that OK to not wear seat belts. Also, this isn't a "can happen to anyone" situation. The car was speeding and "flew" over railroad tracks. The only "accident" part is that the driver thought he had "powers" he didn't have. This type of accident should never happen. They were an accident waiting to happen.
Your brother's accident, sounds like it was an accident, in that he was dealing with black ice. Glad he is all right.
It's ironic how the thing that supposed to save lives can be the cause of death sometimes. My only major accident my seat belt saved me from going head first into the passenger door. My car had nearly flipped, it went on it's side and came slamming down on its wheels. I was damn lucky I didn't get hurt. I'm glad your brother made it out of that!
Katie, my younger brother was an Advanced Life Support Paramedic for 10 years. He went to over 400 traffic fatalities. He's never unbuckled a corpse.
For those kids that hate that old guy or woman yelling @ you for speeding, we care about you, we are warning you because we know.
We have teens racing through our hood @ 70mph through blind intersections and turns in a residential. Power given too young is going to be abused. The kids in my hood wonder why we yell @ them and call the police, this trajedy is exactly why, we who are older have seen enough of this to know cars are not a toy.
This falls on everyone, not just the driver. We need to step it up with our kids.
God bless and I am so sorry this happened.
i didnt drive until i was 21 years old. looking back, i dont think now (hated it then) that it was such a bad idea.
This is a horrific tragedy for all friends and families, unfortunately no lessons will be learned. The driver of the car was totally responsible for all the deaths. No regard for human life including his own. There is no reason for this accident to have happened, was he trying to beat a train??? No seat belts in 98% of crashes they will help save lives. Hope drivers parents can live with themselves for allowing their son Chaya who was so irresponsible to drive. Now they bear the responsibility...
I am so sorry for the other parents who lost their children, they will never be the same...
Reminds me of an accident back in my old hometown where a few kids, just shy of their graduation, decided to go 100 MPH on dirt roads in the early hours of the morning and crash. Out of the 4-5 in the car, a girl survived with severe injuries, including temporary paralysis. She limped during her graduation walk. She will never walk normally again, and is very, very lucky to be alive. Teach your kids responsible driving and set limits. As lame as it sounds, these kids might be alive today if there had been a curfew set. They were not adults by far, as evidenced by their reckless decision-making. It's sad they died, but it was a needless death that could've been prevented. Be vigilante for your own kids' sake.
I am sorry for the lost of kids and the parents it should have been a happy one for them . I have a question why were was the driver going fast anyway??? Because that was wrong and maybe the driver always did it and he made the wrong choice. I am a parent and I think of all the young driver's that have made the wrong choice in driving. Car's and truck's aren't going to protect you if you are going to fast because you will lose control . I know even older driver's go to fast and think that the car or truck will protect you from getting hurt and that is not true. Please all the young driver's remember your friends.
Parents and teachers remind all the high school graduates to slow down when they are behind the wheel. Or, take the keys away from them.
Why do people get so reckless @ graduation time? just senseless stupidity. Same goes for wedding receptions.
They died for no reason.
Friend of mine went to Brunswick for a couple years before going to a Career Center to finish High School, she was in the same graduating class. She was devastated when she found out. Thoughts and prayers to the students friends/family/teachers. I hope that people can learn from this, speeding over railroad tracks is not a good idea. From what I understand this railroad track can get you airborne, I'm sure this was their goal, it's stupid. There's been many accidents because of this spot, the city needs to do something about it.
What is the city to do? The spot is not causing the accidents. It's the driver going over the spot.
I know of other accidents like this where some kid with their new license think they can control the high speed. Some make it, some don,t. But even after all these stories and films they show, there will always be some that will try it.
I am a parent and I was wondering today how I would handle not only losing my son, but, knowing that my son's actions had killed three of his friends as well. The parents of the driver will have a long row to hoe. This wasn't a simple accident, it included negligence to the extent that had the driver lived, he would have faced manslaughter charges.
My thoughts and prayers are with all families. May these families turn to one another right now and have prayers for the driver's family as well.
I'm actually teary-eyed....this truly breaks my heart!
To those who say that parents can do all they can, but in the end, the child will do what HE wants to do. Never underestimate the power of GOOD parenting. How many parents have handed their teens that famous commentary called "Dead at 17"? Many teens over the years have reported that after reading this fictitious account, told in the first person, of a teen who drives carelessly and gets killed, that it shook them up and scared them into being safe drivers.
Thus, one can argue that a parent did NOT do everything possible if she/he never gave their kid to read, "Dead at 17."
Know what ELSE parents can do to have an influence? Sit with their kids before the computer and GOOGLE "graphic car accident photos," then click "Images." Then spend the next few hours looking at the photos. That'll do the trick.
My deepest sympathy to this family and friends. This is a horrible thing that happen I have a son graduating this weekend and I worry every time he gets into a car, accidents happen and kids like to try things to see what they can do all kids do crazy things no matter how well we raise them they all will try it at least once and for anyone to say different is crazy.... This is not a time to talk bad about what happen or ask why is this accident getting the attention this is a time to grieve and give your deepest sympathy to the family this could have happen to anyone of us...
My heart goes out to the family and friends, and I pray that their souls are at peace.
The news seems to only care about accidents like this when it involves the Popular, Known or athlete's, no life any less important then the next, no matter who you are or what you do!
I do not agree.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
That this scene is not occurring in a thousand towns across the world is amazing luck. How many drunk kids are there out there driving? Ten million? Hundred million? A billion?
No one can be holier-than-thou; we all did this. We were all lucky. They weren't. I read the comments from so many above my spot about how tragic this, and horrible that but how many of you did it, how many of you ignore your kids doing it and how many more will die? I guess we'll see.
Canada, Europe make a liberal claim that lowered drinking ages SAVE lives. Of course: statistics do NOT support their claims. But I heard from a Quebec politician: it wasn't about saving teen lives (lowering the drinking age) it was about increasing tax revenues from increased liquor sales. Nice. From the people who gave us 1 year rape sentences because "its expensive to incarcerate and besides, he's learned his lesson."
What a world.
Why wont kids understand that old "road worn" cars wont handle the same at high speeds with 5 people in the car? An inexpierenced drier can slide right off the same curves they take by themselves at the same speed. You have to slow down more with each person in the car.