DEL.ICIO.USDEKALB COUNTY
Two die near site of earlier DeKalb fatality
Speed may be factor in wreck that killed 2 near Cedar Grove High
Sunday, August 24, 2008
A second shrine of flowers and photographs soon may mark what residents say is a particularly hazardous stretch of River Road in DeKalb County, after the deaths of two people in a car crash Sunday afternoon.
A man who was driving and a teenage passenger were killed, and and three other teens were injured, when the driver lost control on a curve and crashed in the 2500 block of River Road in the Ellenwood area near Cedar Grove High School.
Mikki K. Harris /mkharris@ajc.com
Theresa Norman of Decatur looks at the scene where her cousin was involved in a car accident that resulted in two deaths and three injuries on River Road near Cedar Grove High School in the Ellenwood area of DeKalb County.
Just a quarter mile up the winding road, a makeshift memorial stands for 14-year-old Mikah Blalock, who died in a similar accident July 13 when a friend lost control of the car he was riding in and slammed into a telephone pole.
Sunday’s wreck took the lives of the driver, Hammam Southerland, 27, of Ellenwood, and a 17-year-old passenger, Gregory Brown of Ellenwood. DeKalb County police said Southerland was speeding when he lost control of his Lexus, flipping at least twice before smacking into a telephone pole. Both victims died on impact.
DeKalb police said Monday that three males sitting in the back seat, Mario Gavin and Jeremy Brown, both 18, and a 17-year-old whose name has not been released, were treated at Grady Memorial Hospital and released.
Sunday evening, Theresa Norman of Decatur visited the place where she said her cousin, the car’s driver, died. Blood-stained headrests and a shattered windshield littered a small, rocky ravine. A tennis shoe without its mate lay unclaimed in the rubble.
Norman described her cousin as a charming jokester, “the life of the party. People were just drawn to him.”
Many who live nearby were returning from church when they came upon the battered Lexus. They saw on the sidewalk paramedics working frantically to revive or save the three riders in the back seat.
The bodies of the two people killed were removed using a “Jaws of Life” rescue device that pried open the vehicle, Hodge said.
“When I saw there were people still trapped inside, I thought there was no way they were going to make it,” said Wayde Broughton, who lives about 100 yards from site.
His wife, Deidra Broughton, helped comfort one of the survivors’ mothers who arrived on the scene soon after the accident.
Neighbors said it was only a matter of time before the curve contributed to someone’s death.
“There’s an accident every three or four months here,” said Lori Stroman, who lives just off River Road. “We’ve been asking and asking the county for a warning light. Maybe now they’ll put one in, but it’s shame someone has to die to get things done.”
Staff writers S.A. Reid, Chris Reinolds and Mike Morris contributed to this article.
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