DaytonDailyNews.com

WEST ALEXANDRIA — The deaths of two West Alexandria teens 11 days apart have left Twin Valley students in shock and law enforcement warning teen drivers to slow down.

Preble County Sheriff Michael Simpson on Friday, Nov. 14, said speed played a major role in the deaths of both 16-year-olds, who died in single-car crashes.

The combination of inexperience in driving and speed can be deadly, Simpson said, "though at 16 years old they were probably like us at that age — we felt we were kind of invincible. We're trying to put the message out to slow down and put seat belts on," he said.

Glenn Cundiff, 16, of 32 Quaker Trace Road, who was not wearing a seat belt, was pronounced dead at the scene of a crash of the 1991 Chevrolet S-10 truck he was driving around 10:45 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, on Lexington Road, west of Washington Twin Road near Eaton.

His passenger, Joseph Rader, 16, or 531 Quinn Road, West Alexandria, who was wearing a seat belt, was transported to Miami Valley Hospital by CareFlight with non-life-threatening injuries. The truck was traveling east at a high speed when it ran off the south side of the road and struck a tree, Simpson said.

On Sunday, Nov. 2, Joseph Kasserman, 16, of West Alexandria died in a single-car accident just after midnight on Ohio 503 north of Mill Road, south of West Alexandria. Two other occupants of that car suffered serious injuries. Kasserman was a passenger and was wearing his seat belt, Simpson said.

Vernon Rosenbeck, superintendent of the Twin Valley Community Local School District, said Cundiff attended Twin Valley schools until his freshman year last year when he began home schooling. Rader is a sophomore at Twin Valley South and Kasserman was also a student there.

Rosenbeck said students and staff are in shock and disbelief. Grief counselors were available for students all day Friday, and some students chose to go home, he said.

Funeral arrangements were pending, but students will be excused to attend the funeral when it takes place, he said.

Vehicle crash statistics from the Ohio Insurance Institute (2005) show males ages 16 to 20 with a 1 in 5.6 chance of involvement in a crash. The Ohio Department of Public Safety shows male drivers in the 16 -to-20-age group with the highest fatality number (169 of 1,251 total fatalities in Ohio in 2006) of all age groups.

The Insurance Information Institute reported that in 2006 U.S. drivers between the ages of 15 and 20 accounted for 12.9 percent of all drivers in fatal crashes. In 2005 (latest available data) drivers in this age group accounted for 6.3 percent of all licensed drivers.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@DaytonDailyNews.com.