Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2009

Garner High School student dies in wreck

GARNER — Roy Alexander Bryant, a Garner High School senior who played drums at his church and loved tinkering on old cars with his grandfather, was ready to graduate with his classmates today.

Instead of planning a celebration last week of Bryant’s earning a diploma, though, the familly was making funeral arrangements.

Bryant, 18, died in a Johnston County car crash about 7:15 p.m. Monday on Old U.S. 70, near Clayton. He was driving 60 mph in a 45-mph zone and lost control on a curve, state Trooper T.C. Emory said.

The 1997 Ford sedan Bryant was driving crossed the center line and was struck by a vehicle driven by Jennifer Bumgarner of Clayton, Emory said. Bumgarner and her 1-year-old daughter were taken to WakeMed Raleigh campus for minor injuries, Emory said.

Emory said witnesses reported that Bryant was not wearing a seat belt. His mother, Marietta Johnson, said she finds that hard to believe because her son always wore his seat belt and reminded others to do so. The evening he died, Bryant, of 5876 Jones Sausage Road in Garner, had been in Clayton visiting his grandfather, his mother said. “He was on his way home,” she said.

At school, Bryant was popular and loved to make people laugh. After they learned of the accident, some Garner High students wrote messages about Bryant on a banner they gave to his family. They said they would miss their friend. One wrote, “Ever since I was the nerd in the 6th grade, you been my protector.” That’s the kind of person Bryant was, his mother said.

“Everybody looked up to him,” Johnson said.

Drew Cook, principal at Garner High School, said Bryant stood out among the school’s 2,300 students. “He was well-respected,” Cook said. “He was loved.”

Bryant enjoyed playing music, and he played the drums at the Lee’s Crossroads Baptist Church in Wendell, Johnson said.

He also worked as a disc jockey at parties.

Bryant was thinking of enrolling in classes at Wake Tech; he also talked about reviving his retired grandfather’s wrecker service.

Johnson said Bryant spent many of his after-school evenings working at UPS in Raleigh. He had saved some money, and he and his grandfather rebuilt a 1983 Dodge Ram Charger for Bryant, his mother said. Bryant got his driver’s license last summer.

Bryant was a cheerful and sometimes silly young man, always trying to make his family laugh, relatives said. “He always used to do funny voices,” said Summer Bryant, 13, Bryant’s sister.

Johnson said she didn’t see Bryant the day he died, but he called her at work, changing his voice to pretend he was someone else. “He did that all the time,” his mother said.