By 12 On Your Side Digital Team and Gray News staff
Published: May. 21, 2024 at 2:08 AM EDT
HENRICO, Va. (WWBT/Gray News) - Authorities in Virginia say speeding is believed to have been a factor in a car crash that killed two 16-year-old boys and left the 18-year-old driver fighting for his life at the hospital.
Virginia State Police say troopers were called to a single-vehicle crash around 11 p.m. Saturday in the 1200 block of Hockett Road near Tuckahoe Creek Parkway in Goochland County. Troopers say 18-year-old Kyle Alexander Haden was speeding in a 2011 BMW 550i when he lost control of the vehicle, ran off the road to the right and struck a tree.
Family members claimed online that the car was going around 100 mph at the time of the crash, nearly double the 55 mph speed limit. The crash split the car virtually in two, and pieces of it were scattered at least 100 feet beyond where it went off the road, WWBT reports.
Haden was taken to the hospital in critical condition and is fighting for his life. Police say he was the only person in the car wearing a seat belt.
Two 16-year-old boys died at the scene. They were identified as Aiden Schmidt and Joseph Castro, both 10th graders, by the principal of J.R. Tucker High School in a letter to families.
“Understandably, the deaths of these friends and classmates are traumatic for our students and faculty. I am asking parents/guardians to talk to their children in a manner they deem appropriate,” the principal said.
A memorial has been made at the site of the crash and keeps growing as the families of the victims mourn. Castro’s mother, aunt, brother and other loved ones visited the scene Monday.
“In her mind, there is a hope that he can come home. Last night, she was saying he’d be here. He’s gonna be here,” said Castro’s aunt, Mia Rodriguez, of the teen’s mother.
Rodriguez says Castro’s mom, her sister, was working at the time of the crash. Castro was out with friends that night. He came home around 9 p.m. before his friends asked him to meet them again.
“To the single mothers, to the families, to the mothers, to the parents: you don’t want to go through what we go through. You don’t want to have that feeling,” Rodriguez said.
She says her nephew had a smile that will never be forgotten.
“What I will always remember is his laugh, to come up and say, ‘It’s gonna be OK. Don’t worry’ and the smile. That’s something that he always had,” Rodriguez said.
The only comfort Castro’s family finds is knowing he died next to Schmidt, his best friend. Rodriguez says Schmidt and Castro were always playing games together; though she did not know Haden.
Some of Schmidt’s family visited the memorial site, too. One man said he took him under his wing when he first met him because he saw so much of himself in him, describing Schmidt as a kind, gentle kid.
Neighbors in the Goochland area are keeping the families in their thoughts as they hope for better traffic measures to prevent future tragedies. Hockett Road is a winding road with no traffic lights, and it gets very dark at night. While the speed limit is 55 mph, neighbors say drivers push that speed all the time.
“It needs to go down to 45. It’s just a dangerous road,” neighbor Susan White said.
White’s backyard practically became the scene of the crash. She says she heard the impact but could not see anything.
“At 11:01, I heard an explosion, and my husband said, ‘Was that thunder?’ I said, ‘That was an explosion.’ I looked out the window, thinking maybe I would see smoke or flame or something, and I went out in the front of the house to see if there was anything. I saw nothing,” White said.
White thinks the car’s lights must have shut off immediately since she could not see anything. When she woke up again around 2 a.m., she saw police at the scene.
“Why does it happen now almost every year? Something tragic happens to somebody, one of the graduating classes of high schools. How many accidents does it have to take for these kids to slow down?” White said.
White and her husband describe the neighborhood as quiet but growing. She says it is mainly an older crowd near her house, and everyone was heartbroken to hear about the crash.
“This has just shaken us all up,” White said.
She has a grandson in the Richmond area the same age as the victims.
“We want him to see the devastation and to see the memorial. We want him to know those are real people that were hurt and killed, and the friends and the family have to live with this forever,” she said.
The crash remains under investigation. It’s unclear if charges will be filed.
The school says counselors will be available throughout the week.
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