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The Ohio State Highway Patrol is still investigating a crash in which three local teen boys died Thursday afternoon after their small car veered off Factory Road near Albany and struck a tree.
The Patrol identified the three as the car’s driver, Adam W. Jolley, 16, of Athens; and two passengers, Adam D. Fitzgerald, 17, of Pomeroy; and Christopher N. Coe, 17, of Albany.
All three were students from the Alexander Local School District, though at least one of them, Fitzgerald, was reportedly attending the Tri-County Career Center in Nelsonville.
Bob Bray, superintendent of the Alexander district, said Friday morning that he had learned of the fatal accident only the night before. Bray seemed stunned by the tragedy.
“I don’t know what to say,” the superintendent told The Athens NEWS. “I’m devastated for them, and for all the kids who have to go on after this.”
Bray’s district has gone through tragic accidents like this before involving its students, including a January 2004 single-car crash in western Athens County that killed a 16-year-old Alexander student and a female student from the Athens City School District. Alcohol was involved in that fatal crash, and the female teen driver was charged in connection with it.
“It’s a tragedy every time this happens,” Bray said Friday. “Every time you hear this, you just don’t know how (the families) can go on after that. It affects the kids, too, the kids at school. These are kids they may have been going to school with their whole lives… As a parent, you run through all the scenarios in your mind. You warn them, you tell them, but there’s just this drive to be independent. It seems like adolescence and gasoline and cars are not a good mix.”
Bray said the district will make counseling available for students who are emotionally impacted by the recent tragedy. — Athens NEWS Associate Editor Jim Phillips contributed to this article.
The Highway Patrol report said the boys were heading north on County Road 14 (also Factory Road) at 3:55 p.m. Thursday when their Dodge Neon failed to negotiate a curve, veered off the right side of the road, and struck the tree. All three were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Patrol.
The report said two of the teens, Jolley and Fitzgerald, were wearing seatbelts before the crash. The boys’ remains have been sent to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, the report said.
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these boys died way to young.
adam fitzgerald was called fitzy,
he went to tri county in nelsonville, but his home school was alexander.
he was best frieds with my brother.
i will miss him so much.
i love you fitz, may you rest in peace, and god be with your family in their time of need.