Investigators found beer cans in the wreckage of the crash that killed Nick Coady and his two friends, but it will be weeks until tests determine if Coady was driving drunk when his 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee crashed into a front-end loader.

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Friends of the trio are so certain that alcohol played a role in the Tuesday crash, though, that they started a campaign to warn others against the dangers of drinking and driving.

“We can’t do anything about it, but try to keep it from happening again,” said Justin White, a friend of the three.

Already, their mission is gaining momentum.

Since Tuesday, more than 1,000 people have joined a Facebook page White created to organize a Students Against Destructive Decisions group at South Fork High School in Martin County, where Coady, 18, Chris Briglio, 18, and Connor Graver, 16, attended. There are plans for bumper stickers and bracelets honoring the young men’s memories and reminding teens not to drink and drive.

Christopher Briglio

Connor Graver

Nicholas Coady

SADD, formerly known as Students Against Drunk Driving, uses peer-to-peer education and community activism to help deter students from drinking, drug use and risky or violent behavior.

Friends also plan to hold a car wash at 9 a.m. Sunday at Seacoast National Bank at U.S. 1 and Cove Road, near the site of the wreck, to raise money for the families.

“It’s just like everyone is helping out. It’s crazy how big it’s gotten,” said Devyn Squires, 17.

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Nicholas Coady
Christopher Briglio
Connor Graver

Investigators still are unraveling details of the events that led to the crash. They know that the Jeep slammed head-on into a John Deere front-end loader around 2 a.m. at a construction site south of Stuart.

Briglio and Graver, neither of whom were wearing seat belts, died at the scene, while Coady was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he later died. He was wearing a seat belt.

Lt. Chris Cribbs of the Florida Highway Patrol said investigators suspect that alcohol and speeding played a role in the crash.

The position of the front-end loader also may have contributed.

Cribbs said there were barricades surrounding the construction site, but the front-end loader’s driver had backed into the eastbound lanes of the road, blocking oncoming traffic.

The driver, 25-year-old Pedro Perez-Espinosa of Okeechobee, was not hurt.

Friends, several of whom spoke to their peers before the crash, believe Coady, Briglio and Graver had been to several people’s houses and were drinking before they got into the Jeep. They said, too, that other students they know drink and drive as well.

“We think it’s never going to happen to us and it does,” White said. “We don’t want to have to bury more friends.”

Tags: Martin County

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.