Johnston County Commissioner Tony Braswell lives near the spot where a Princeton High School senior and a recent graduate lost their lives last month in a car wreck. It was the latest in a string of accidents, most on the county's narrow, rural roads, that have killed 25 teenagers since the beginning of 2006.

Now Braswell is spearheading an effort to figure out how to stop the county's youngest drivers from dying in car wrecks. In the coming weeks, he will call together state and county agencies, including the state Highway Patrol, the N.C. Department of Transportation and Johnston County Schools, to try to determine what's causing the deaths and, he hopes, to come up with solutions.

"We want to determine why there are so many fatalities in Johnston County and see if there is anything we can do, like do we need more education or driving classes to save lives," Braswell said.

He plans to look at all possible factors, including speed limits and the condition of rural roads.

From 2005 to 2007, Johnston has been one of North Carolina's deadliest counties for teen drivers and their passengers. Only Buncombe County, in the mountains, had a worse record for teen vehicle fatalities, according to the UNC Highway Safety Research Center.

Teens crash rates are much higher in rural areas than in urban ones. Johnston and other rural counties have narrow secondary roads with higher speed limits and poorer lighting than urban roads, which make them more dangerous for inexperienced drivers, according to the highway safety center.

Capt. Everett Clendenin of the state Highway Patrol said he welcomes Braswell's forum to help reduce teen fatalities.

"All the time we talk about that we can't do this alone," Clendenin said. "Enforcement alone is not going to make a difference."

What will, he said, is parents driving with their teenagers and correcting bad habits. Schools need to stress good driving, too.

Next week, Highway Patrol officers begin their "Drive to Live" campaign to encourage teens to drive safely. Troopers will head to schools to talk to teenage drivers about wearing seat belts and slowing down.

Speed is still the leading cause of teenage deaths in the state, Clendenin said.

"Teens are more likely to die in a car crash due to speeding than from anything else," he said.

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