For the second time this year, members of the Lexington High School community are mourning the loss of one of their own in a car wreck.
Recent graduate Nicholas J. Barnett, 18, was with two friends from Lexington heading down Woburn Street at about 11:20 p.m. Wednesday when their car careened off the right shoulder and struck a tree. The Bowdoin College freshman was pronounced dead at Lahey Clinic in Burlington.
"Speed and weather appear to be contributing factors, but the crash remains under investigation," Lexington police said yesterday. A police press release did not say who was driving the vehicle and Lexington police would not comment further.
Barnett's two friends, also young men, were transported to Lahey, where they were expected to recover from their injuries.
Earlier this year, the death of 18-year-old Andrew Stone touched off widespread concerns about student well-being at Lexington High School. Stone had been a passenger in a car driven by his 17-year-old brother the night of Jan. 26 when it struck a tree. The youths had attended a house party earlier that night.
Gabe Schonfeld, 17, a senior at Lexington High School and the student representative to the School Committee, said Wednesday night's crash will stun students and teachers. Schonfeld had German class with Barnett for three years and called him a "terrific, smart kid."
"He was funny, just faultlessly nice to everyone he knew," said Schonfeld, noting that Barnett was active in competitive target shooting and did well at school.
"He'll dearly be missed," Schonfeld said. "This is going to affect a whole other community. Teenagers like to think they're invincible. They like to think they're immortal. And every now and then something tragic happens and shakes it all out of us."
A family friend who answered the telephone at Barnett's home said he graduated from Lexington High in June and was attending college in Maine. The friend said he loved to sail and play music.
"He leaves behind many friends," said the friend, who declined to be identified by name.
Linda Cincotta, who lives near the site of the crash, said yesterday that she had watched a team of firefighters working to extricate one of the victims, after two were already taken away in an ambulance. "They were having a difficult time trying to get the last boy out," she said.
She described Woburn Street as a typical town road, but said it dips in the area where the crash occurred. She has seen accidents there before, she said, adding that motorists are known to speed on the road. The streets were wet Wednesday night.
"It's just so sad," she said. "I stayed up all night praying. I just feel so bad for the parents and the kids."
In the spring, Lexington High School required students attending proms to take officially provided transportation, rather than their own cars, or privately hired limousines in an effort to keep them safe on the roads.
In a bulletin after Stone's death, Lexington High School's principal, Michael Jones, said the wreck "reminds us of the fragility of life and of the vulnerability of young people who, we believe, are placed on this earth to grow up, to learn, to engage in productive lives, to have families, and to enjoy, at the end of a long life, the ultimate satisfaction of having lived well and contributed to the well-being of others."
"When these plans fail, we grieve, and we are afraid," he wrote.
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com
