April 28, 1998|By Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan and Melissa Corley | Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan and Melissa Corley,SUN STAFF
A Sunday afternoon joy ride on a curvy, Crownsville country road that teens call the "End of the World" went awry when the 19-year-old driver lost control and drove into a tree, killing an 11-year-old passenger who had traces of alcohol and marijuana in his blood, police said.
Edward Eric Cordova of the 2400 block of Flowering Tree Lane in Gambrills died just before 4: 30 p.m. Sunday at Anne Arundel Medical Center, police said. The driver, Gregory Dwayne Bostic of the 2500 block of Davidsonville Road in Gambrills, was treated for minor injuries and released from Anne Arundel Medical Center, police said.
Two other passengers also were hurt. Adrian Marie Cordova, 14, the dead boy's sister, suffered multiple injuries and was treated and released from the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said. David Carl Harrison, 18, also of the 2400 block of Flowering Tree Lane in Gambrills, was in serious condition yesterday.
Police spokeswoman Carol Frye said preliminary tests showed traces of alcohol in the blood of Bostic and Edward Cordova. She said the tests also found that Edward had probably been smoking marijuana. She said police are investigating the cause of the accident and whether Edward smoked marijuana and drank.
"I saw it in the police report, and I don't believe it," the boy's father, Edward Earl Cordova, said yesterday. He said he did not know of his son's ever drinking or smoking marijuana.
He said people in the area called the curve, known as "Dead
Man's Curve" when he was a child, "End of the World" because if you don't follow the curve and veer off the road, "you go off the end of the world."
Frye said the four youths had spent the afternoon hanging out at friends' houses and were speeding west on Chesterfield Road in Bostic's 1986 Honda Civic when the accident occurred just before 3: 30 p.m. She said that as the car crested a hill, it bottomed out and veered into the oncoming lane.
She said that when Bostic steered to the right to try to return to his lane, the car spun 180 degrees, went up an embankment and hit a tree. The car overturned, and Edward was ejected, Frye said. The car landed upside down, and the three youths inside freed themselves, she said.
Frye said none of the passengers was using a seat belt and that police think driver error is the primary cause of the collision. She said the state's attorney's office is reviewing the investigation records.
Police said the speed limit on that part of Chesterfield Road is 35 mph. Adrian Marie Cordova said Bostic was going about 65.
She said she did not know whether her brother, a sixth-grader at Arundel Middle School, had smoked marijuana or consumed alcohol in the afternoon because she was not with the group then.
Her father said many youths in the area regard "End of the World" as "a daredevil type of thing."
"A lot of kids do it," he said. "There should be more law enforcement there or something."
Pub Date: 4/28/98
