Grief counselors remained on hand Wednesday at Cedartown High School, where students were mourning a popular classmate killed in a single-vehicle wreck Tuesday morning.
Karina Macedo, 17 and a senior, was a passenger in the vehicle and was ejected in the wreck, which happened around 7:45 on Collard Valley Road near Clyde Street, according to Cedartown police Chief Jamie Newsome. Kari, as she was known, was transported to Polk Medical Center, but did not survive.
Two of Kari’s classmates, both boys whose names were not released, sustained non-life threatening injuries and were treated and released from the hospital, Newsome said.
The crash happened about a mile from Cedartown High School, where Principal Darrell Wetherington said he and other administrators were outside the school early Tuesday and heard the sirens headed to the crash. The police chief later confirmed that Kari had died, and the news spread quickly to students and staff members, Wetherington told The Atlanta-Journal-Constitution.
A moment of silence was held in honor of Kari. Additional counselors were brought in and some grieving students chose to check out of school, he said.
“She was a dream student,” Wetherington said Tuesday afternoon. “The teachers would light up when she walked into the classroom.”
Kari was involved in the school’s drama program and was taking two drama and theater classes, Wetherington said.
Investigators have not determined how the crash occurred, but the Cedartown Police Department requested assistance from the Georgia State Patrol, Newsome said.
“With a tragedy such as this, with a loss of such a young life, we felt it necessary to seek assistance from the GSP team to make sure we know as much as we can about the accident,” Newsome said in an emailed statement. “Right now, we ask that the community remember the families affected by this tragedy in your thoughts and prayers.”
Cedartown is about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta.
— Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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