But the number of teenagers killed in such a tragedy wouldn't be enough to equal the nearly 7,000 killed in teen driving crashes last year in this country.

David G. Souter was just one kid.

The case file from his crash takes up just one inch in a file drawer at the records division of the Connecticut State Police.

It reads like the script of a driver's education film: Just 17 years old, only had his license two months. Told his parents he was sleeping at a friend's house. At 72 mph, his car careened out of control on the kind of curve a more experienced driver might have negotiated safely.

David had spent the night drinking alcohol with friends at a place teenagers call “The Runway” — a rarely used Department of Transportation property between Route 2 and the shelter of the woods in Lebanon.

When the car flipped over, David's friend, Kevin Brosnan, dragged himself from the vehicle and called 911, according to the accident file.

•••••

David's mother, Patricia Souter, hasn't been able to bring herself to read that file.

More than a year after the Jan. 20 crash, the 17-year-old's room is exactly as it was. One wall is covered in a tribute to reggae legend Bob Marley. Notes are still tacked to a corkboard. The photomontages from David's funeral bury his bed.

In the intervening months, the photos have curled away from their poster board, and Patricia Souter tries smoothing them down before she decides, once again, that she should put them into albums.

Weekdays, Patricia Souter walks to her job at the dentist's office next door. In the afternoons, her husband, David R. Souter, drives to his job at Electric Boat. And, for the first time, their house is empty. Their two daughters are now living on their own, and their youngest child was taken from them too soon.

The Souters say they are still trying to figure out what, if anything, could have prevented the crash that ended their son's life.

“We thought we'd done everything,” David Souter said. “You know, we gave him the cell phone, you have communication

possibilities, but somehow things just slip by. You don't follow through maybe on something. You want to try to go back and say, 'Well, we could have done this differently or that differently — maybe it would have changed the outcome.' You can do that the rest of your life.'”

The Souters weren't the “cool” parents. They say they never partied with their children — David, Margeaux and Meghan — and they didn't let other kids drink at their house. If Patty Souter didn't know a friend's parents, she would make sure she got to know them. And she and her husband would communicate with the parents they did know.

“This one says, 'I'm staying at his house,'” David Souter said. “And the other one says, 'I'm staying at his house.' And now you don't know where they're staying. It's good to have a relationship with the parents of the kids they get along with.”

They say they taught their children never to drink and drive — “not one drop.” And like all good parents, they told their children that if they ever needed a ride home, for any reason, to call them, any time of night, and they would pick them up, no questions asked until later.

“The kids will tell you that's a common spot where kids go and party, but we didn't know,” Patty said of the Runway. “Talk about not being tuned in, huh? But you can only tune in so much.”

•••••

David and his friends started planning their Friday night in third-period art class at Norwich Technical High School.

The plan was for David and Nick Delia, both 17, and Kevin Brosnan and John Gluck, both 16, to drink and smoke weed at the Runway.

“On Thursday we had all already set up what booze we would buy and gave our order to Mike G. who works with me at Village Pizza in Preston and paid him for it. It cost $90 and I gave him an extra $10 for gas and effort,” Brosnan told state police after the accident.

Michael Geragotels told police he took the alcohol out of his father's vehicle, took the money from Brosnan and delivered the alcohol — Natural Ice Beer, Southern Comfort, Jagermeister and Bailey's — to David's car trunk Friday night at the pizza parlor.

Kevin Brosnan told his parents he was going to be sleeping at John's house.

David told his parents he was sleeping at Nick's, but Nick's parents were away on a cruise.

In reality, the plan was for Kevin and Dave to sleep in their car at the Runway, John told police.

In statements made to police following the crash, the boys described a night of drinking and driving.

“We sat at the Runway and tried to start a fire, but it was too windy,” Nick told police.

From 10 p.m. to midnight, Nick told police, he and the other boys drank at the Runway and a few of the boys, including David, smoked marijuana.

Then, Nick told police, he and John drove to McDonald's in Norwich and then to Wal-Mart to get pallets for the fire.

They were gone for a long time, so, Kevin said, he and David went in David's car to look for them. Finally, they all went back to the fire.

Patty Souter said David was driving his deceased uncle's Toyota.

“We were just getting ready to transfer it over.... Our mechanic went through the whole thing, checked the brakes, because I wanted to make sure everything was good in it,” she said.

Nick told police they continued drinking by the fire until 3 a.m.

“I only drank beer, no alcohol,” Nick told police. “At around 3 a.m. David and Kevin started to bother John. They were goofing/harassing him. John got into my truck and wanted to go home.”

David and Kevin were very drunk, Nick said, and Kevin was falling down.

Nick got into his truck and left to drive John home, the boys told police.

While Nick was gone, David and Kevin got into David's car to get more firewood, driving from the Runway to Fitchville Road in Bozrah, where they thought they could find more firewood. They were headed toward a small side street — Gilman Road — that loops back to Fitchville Road.

“The car started to swerve back and forth then slid to the left and crashed,” Kevin said in a statement. “I did not know where I was.”

Dispatchers reported that Kevin called 911 and told them he'd told David not to drive — that he was too drunk to drive.

“I reached in my pocket for my cell phone and opened it for light,” Kevin told police. “I looked around and could see David's jeans, and it looked like he was upside down. I called 911 and lost the call. I then saw smashed glass that was still together. I punched it with my fists and crawled out.”

An ambulance crew found David's car on its roof on Fitchville Road in Bozrah, near the entrance to Gilman Road.

David was dead. He was still seat-belted in.

“I used to get on him every time he got in the car. 'Make sure you wear your seat belt because it will save your life one day,'” Patty said.

Police who reconstructed the crash said the car was going 72 mph when it began swerving on a curve and David never regained control. The car spun onto its side in the soft shoulder, slid along a guardrail, flipped onto its roof and hit two large trees.

Meanwhile, Nick and John, who were driving in the other direction, came upon the crash.

“I stopped my car for about a second. I didn't know what to do,” Nick Delia said in his statement.

John called 911, and Nick later told police that he drove off to a commuter lot at exit 23 off Route 2 and dumped the rest of the alcohol.

Nick never went back to the accident.

The next day, David's girlfriend, Kendra Bradley, called Nick to tell him David was dead.

David's blood-alcohol content tested at .12, six times the legal limit for someone his age and above the .08 blood-alcohol limit for adults.

•••••

Today there is a scholarship in David's name at Norwich Tech, where he was studying to be a plumber.

The last time the Souters saw many of his friends' parents was the day of the wake. Calling hours were at the Church and Allen Funeral Home, on the same street where the Souters live, just around the corner from Norwich Free Academy. The funeral Mass was at St. Patrick's Cathedral, in the same neighborhood. David was buried at Maplewood Cemetery.

The Souters say they haven't heard much from the friends who were there the night of the crash.

“It's not an easy thing,” Patty said. “They lost a good friend, and I think they realize a lot of things happened that night that went wrong.”

She worries for them, she said, especially Kevin, who lost his father shortly before the crash. Kevin and Nick decided not to be interviewed for this article. John could not be reached for comment. Michael did not return calls for comment.

Norwich Police Capt. Timothy Menard said after a fatal crash those involved often go through a process of assigning guilt to themselves.

David's older sister, Margeaux, received a missed call from David just before the crash. No message.

Patty said it bothers Margeaux. She would have picked him up in a heartbeat.

“It's a year later, and it's just as painful as a year ago,” Patty said.

“It's just a death that's out of sequence. It still doesn't feel right because it's not how it's supposed to happen.” David Souter said. “And you know, we'll probably be thinking that the rest of our lives. It just doesn't seem right, to lose a child.”

The Souters said their son was a typical teenager, grumpy, liked to surf, never wanted to tell them anything and always getting up late for school.

“He was like the comic strip 'Zits.' I read that every day and I swear to God that's exactly what he was — that kid,” David Souter said.

David had recently started a job delivering pizza for Dominic's Brickoven Pizzeria in Norwich.

“He'd call me from Laurel Hill. 'Mom — where is such and such?'” Patty recalled, laughing.

David was also the type of kid, said the Souters, who would notice when a teacher got a new haircut. At an assisted-living facility in Waterford, where his aunt gave haircuts to the elderly, David would wheel the clients back to their rooms.

“David had a notebook next to his bed, and it's still there. And it's all a list of things he wanted to do. He had an agenda,” Patty said. “Yet he won't have that opportunity now. He wanted to go away camping for a week.”

It wasn't until after he died that David's parents found out he had been helping a pregnant teacher at the school move bales of hay.

“This isn't what David was. This is what killed him,” David Souter said. “It wasn't like he was out drinking all the time. That wasn't him. And that's why we were a little shocked — 'What do you mean he was drinking?'”

None of the teens was charged following the crash, including Michael Geragotels, who allegedly sold the alcohol to the group. According to the state's attorney's office, there was a misunderstanding between the courts and police that the matter was civil, rather than criminal.

The state's attorney's office said the case could still be reopened for criminal charges and that the Souters could still decide to sue. The Souters said they do not plan to file a lawsuit.

•••••

Menard said because teenagers' brains are not fully developed, they have a difficult time making decisions. Add in alcohol and inexperience behind the wheel, he said, and the chances that a teenager will make the right decision drop dramatically.

“If you're supposed to be a designated driver, don't drink and drive. If your friends are going to do something stupid and you're the one who has to be responsible, and you're willing to take on that responsibility, then that's a sacred position. Treat it that way,” he said.

Menard said parents can only do the best they can. Try to be a good influence, lock up liquor and remember that a vehicle is a weapon.

“You can't be the cool parent,” Patty said. “We would tell them, 'You know, we're not your friends. We're your parents.'”

Menard said the availability of vehicles to teens today, in particular, high-powered motor vehicles, has contributed to accidents.

“In this case,” said Menard. “It's an older car. It's in good condition. They insisted that he wear a seat belt, which is part of the law. It's very rare that a person who is wearing a seat belt is killed in a crash.”

Patty said when she was young growing up in Norwich, she and her friends did the same things, but they were usually on foot.

The Souters said they realize no one forced David to drink or get into the car.

“He didn't make the turn that a lot of us made at that age,” David Souter said. “He didn't make it around the turn. A lot of us did.”