5 days ago
18-year-old gets in fatal crash hours after high school graduation, VA school says
An 18-year-old walked across the stage at his high school graduation just hours before he was involved in a fatal crash in Virginia, officials said.
Jemeire Hite was 'full of promise and pride' on May 24, the day he graduated high school, Lunenburg County Public Schools Superintendent Sharon Stanislas said in a statement.
But shortly before 5 p.m. that same day, the newly-minted Central High School graduate was a passenger in a Chevrolet Malibu when the 23-year-old driver veered off the side of the road, went into an embankment and hit a tree, according to Virginia State Police.
The driver and two other passengers were seriously injured, and Hite died of his injuries at a hospital on May 28, police said.
No one in the car was wearing a seatbelt, and the driver was charged with reckless driving, according to police.
Hite's mother took to social media to clarify that the crash was an accident, and she doesn't blame the driver, who she says was close with her son.
She told WTVR her son lived 'an amazing life and left an amazing mark on everyone he came in contact (with).'
The investigation into the Campbell County crash is ongoing, state police said.
Lunenburg County is in southern Virginia, about an 80-mile drive southwest from Richmond.
