CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- The James River High School and the greater Chesterfield County community are mourning the deaths of high school students Nicholas Booth and William Hammitt.
James River High School released the students' names in an email to classmates and school families.
"Both families shared this with us and asked that I share this with you. We will keep these families in our thoughts during this difficult time," James River principal Dr. Amanda Voelker wrote. "Counselors and administrators are sharing this information with their classmates tomorrow to provide support and will do so Friday as well."
Booth and Hammitt were killed early Tuesday evening in a crash along the 3200 block of Old Gun Road West in Chesterfield County.
Chesterfield police said the driver was traveling on Old Gun Road W. around 5:47 p.m. in a BMW when he entered a curve at a high rate of speed and lost control. The car then hit a retaining wall, flipped over, and caught on fire.
Booth and Hammitt were trapped inside the vehicle and died at the scene.
Chesterfield Police Sergeant Stephan Rouze said on the day of the crash, Chesterfield Police were told by other students that Booth and Hammitt were playing a game of “senior assassin,” which is a collective student-sponsored game similar to playing tag but with water guns.
Rouze said, according to the evidence, that game was unrelated to the crash and other vehicles were not following the students' car when it crashed.
The James River High School Senior Assassin Instagram page announced Wednesday it would now end the game early “in the wake of a loss to our community" and that money collected for the game would be donated to the crash victims' families.
Neighbor Dana Smith said he heard what sounded like a "large, violent accident.”
"By the time [the neighbors] came out there, the car was already engulfed in flames. So tragically, it didn't look like there were possibly any survivors," he said. "It’s tragic in a couple of senses. When I was standing out there, towards the end of the night, I heard one of the officers say, 'here comes a tough part of my job, which is having to notify the parents.'"
Smith called Old Gun Road, where the posted speed limit is 35 mph, "a dangerous one.”
“It seems to me you have a couple of terrible recipes that can lead to disaster, a narrow road with long stretches with people who speed," he said.
According to DMV data, there have been at least 30 crashes reported along Old Gun Road over the past five years:
- 2022: 5 crashes
- 2021: 4 crashes
- 2020: 5 crashes
- 2019: 6 crashes
- 2018: 10 crashes
Smith said in addition to the narrowness and windiness of the road, there's not many stop signs and there's also not much room in between the road and ditch, especially around curves.
"If you go off the side of the road, you're going to flip over, especially going on Old Gun towards Cherokee," he said. "There's a steep drop off, so it seems like they could widen it in certain areas to probably accommodate those turns."
Rouze said there have now been at least six deadly crashes in Chesterfield County so far in 2023.
He said the crash highlights why the police department cracks down hard on speeding.
"We take the enforcement side of things very seriously, because we know the back end result, especially when inexperienced teen drivers are speeding. It's a tragedy," Rouze said. "You will see us out there 24/7, 365 pulling folks over. We generally don't cut breaks, because we don't want this to be somebody else's family."
Anyone with information was asked to call Chesterfield Police at 804-748-1251 or Crime Solvers at 804-748-0660.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
