The teenage driver who police say turned in front of a motorcycle last week, causing a wreck that left a former Buford High School football star fatally injured, has been charged with vehicular homicide.
Former Buford High and Air Force Academy tight end Devin Durden died early Thursday of injuries sustained in the Sept. 26 collision between the motorcycle he was riding and a 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer driven by 18-year-old Caylie Edge of Lawrenceville.
Edge was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail Thursday afternoon on charges of vehicular homicide and failure to yield. She was released from jail about three hours later after posting $32,450 bond, according to jail records.
Durden’s funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at First Baptist Church of Buford. Visitation will be from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Flanigan Funeral Home in Buford.
Durden, 21, was riding a motorcycle on Ga. 20 in Gwinnett County Sept. 26 when he crashed into a sport utility vehicle that turned left in front of him near Gravel Springs Road, according to a Gwinnett accident report.
Durden, who has played for the Air Force Academy, was thrown from his bike and sustained multiple broken bones and a severed spine.
“It is with a broken heart that we must communicate to you that Devin Durden passed away this morning around 3:15 a.m.,” family friend Stuart Hall told Channel 2 Action News in a Thursday morning text. “Devin fought incredibly hard, but in the end, the injuries he sustained were so numerous and complex that he just could not survive.”
Hall is assistant to Durden’s father, Gene Durden, the longtime head girls basketball coach at Buford High.
Devin Durden was at home on a visit when the wreck happened.
Since the accident, Durden had undergone surgeries at Gwinnett Medical Center and had been on a respirator. He was taken off the respirator for a time but contracted pneumonia and was put back on it.
The former player’s death was the third death this year directly affecting the Buford High athletic department.
Adam Smith, a 16-year-old basketball player, died Sept. 16, three days after collapsing during a preseason workout at the school.
On Jan. 26, Ryan Daniel, a 30-year-old teacher and assistant football coach, suffered a fatal heart attack at the school.
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