Holding lighted candles, several hundred students and parents gathered Sunday night in front of Walt Whitman High School to remember a classmate who died along with his parents in a car crash Saturday and to offer hope for the recovery of his sister, a sophomore who was seriously injured.
“I have no claims to be a spiritual leader. I’m not a rabbi, a minister, a preacher, I’m just a principal that really loves his kids and you’re going to see an upset principal—I’ll get through this—but we’ve lost so many and I’m sad and I’m mad,” said Whitman Principal Alan Goodwin, his voice breaking as he spoke of the deaths of senior Thomas M. Buarque de Macedo, 18, and his parents, 52-year-old Michael and 53-year-old Alessandra Buarque de Macedo, in a two-car collision that occurred about 7 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Pyle and River roads.
The Bethesda couple’s daughter, Whitman sophomore Helena Buarque de Macedo, was listed in stable condition Sunday night at a local hospital, according to a relative who attended the vigil.
Montgomery County police said the driver of the 2016 BMW that collided with the family’s car, 20-year-old Ogulcan Atakoglu of Potomac, was transported to a local hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. The accident investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed. WTOP reported Sunday that Atakoglu had previously been convicted of speeding and reckless driving on Interstate 270 in April 2013.
Goodwin called for moments of silence for the “sorrow for the three lives lost” and in the hope for the recovery of Helena, a bright student who was taking aerospace engineering during her sophomore year.
He also called attention to the intersection where the accident occurred. There is no traffic light at the intersection, which can be difficult to cross because of the speed of traffic on River Road.
“Tonight is a night to mourn, but we will revisit where this accident took place, that we’ve been trying to get people to understand is a dangerous intersection, regardless of what attempts people make to cross it safely,” he said. “I do not know exactly what happened that night. I don’t know if we’ll ever know. But we know that is a dangerous intersection and we will as a community be revisiting that entire issue and hopefully getting a better ear than we’ve had in the past.”
Punctuated by songs, stories and tears, the hour-long vigil painted a picture of Tommy, as he was known to friends and teachers, as a bright student who loved amusement parks, participating on the debate team, and Georgia Tech, where he had been accepted and hoped to attend next fall.
Members of the debate team and classmates talked of Tommy and his desire to “change the world,” often switching from the present to the past tense as they told stories about their friend, sparking laughter and tears.
Like several others, David Whyman, a fellow member of the debate team, described his friend as passionate and funny. “He was an incredible human being and he was never afraid to be himself. He’s one of the most unique and incredible people I’ve ever met,” Whyman said. “He had like an endless supply of jokes. No matter what happened, he always knew how to make you laugh. He would brighten my life every single day in physics class.”
Michelle Holloway, who taught AP Calculus to Tommy, spoke emotionally of the student who she described as a “gentle soul and a sweetheart” who helped repair bookshelves in her classroom and yet “could be too smart for his own good.”
“I loved him so much, I really did,” she said after the vigil.
Other students spoke of Helena and their hope for her recovery. The children’s uncle, who declined to be named, thanked the crowd for appearing at the vigil, but requested that the family’s “need for solitude” be respected.
After the service, students and parents lingered to talk to one another and Goodwin. Raya Kheirbek, a palliative care physician whose daughter is a senior at Whitman, said she was on her way home Saturday night when she came across the crash scene. She pulled over to see if she could help and with the help of others who had stopped, broke one of the car’s windows so she could crawl inside to check on the victims.
After checking on Tommy and his parents, she crawled over to Helena, who was in the back seat along with her mother. She spoke to the girl, who was wearing a seat belt, and Helena spoke back.
“I didn’t really know what to do, so I started praying in her ear and caressing her hair and saying it’s going to be all right. Someone is coming to help,” Kheirbek said.
She left the car when emergency personnel arrived and didn’t find out until the following morning that the victims were a “Whitman family.”
“I deal with the end of life and the fragility of life is incredible, but not under these circumstances where there were three just in front of you and you’re helpless,” she said.
Participants in a candlelight vigil Sunday night at Walt Whitman High School. Via Glen Echo Fire Department/Facebook
