ROGERS -- Heritage High School students will wear tie-dye clothing next week as they remember a classmate who drowned after the vehicle he was riding in slid into Lake Atalanta on Friday morning.
Visitation for Trenton L. Whitfield, 17, is planned for 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Benton County Funeral Home in Rogers. Karla Tedford, owner of the funeral home, confirmed Saturday that Whitfield was the teen who died in the accident. A funeral time hadn't yet been set.
Rachel Huffman, a classmate of Whitfield's, said friends planned to wear tie-dye clothing Monday in remembrance of the teen. Whitfield wore tie-dye often, including tie-dye socks and a head-band, she said.
Whitfield's death "hit hard" for many students at the school where he was a junior, Huffman said.
"He was friends with the entire school," Huffman said. "If you were having a bad day, once you saw Trenton you no longer were having a bad day."
Whitfield was a passenger in a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo traveling on a dirt road that loops the lake. The vehicle, driven by Justin Richards, 18, slid on ice, traveled down an embankment and went into the water, Rogers Police Department officials said.
Whitfield was trapped in the vehicle that eventually sunk 17 feet, police said. He was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital in Rogers.
Richards and a 15-year-old passenger escaped the vehicle, police said. They were treated at Mercy Hospital. Richards was released Friday, Jessica Eldred, hospital spokesman, said. The hospital doesn't release medical updates on minors, she said.
Richards and the 15-year-old also are students at Heritage High School, Ashley Siwiec, Rogers School District director of communications, said. Counselors were available Friday and would be again next week, she said.
Whitfield enjoyed BMX, skateboarding and football, Steven Sappe, a supervisor at the Rogers Activity Center, said. He said the teen spent a lot of time at the center.
"I have worked here for about four years," Sappe said. "He would come in during the day, just hang out. We would joke around and just talk about life."
Sappe said a few years ago the center started having problems with other teens at the skate park on the center's property. Whitfield learned about the problems and tried to fix them, Sappe said.
"All of my problems stopped," Sappe said. "He took everything that happened at the skate park and in this building personally. He loved both of them."
Whitfield often was the first person to step in to defuse conflicts that erupted from time to time between other teens at the center, Sappe said.
"He made sure everything ended peacefully," Sappe said. "He was that kid I never had to worry about because he was always there doing the right thing."
Everyone at the center knew Whitfield, Sappe said.
"We will never forget him around here," Sappe said Saturday. "Yesterday, when I heard, it was just heartbreaking. I am still heartbroken today and getting emotional talking about him."
Heritage was among other schools in Northwest Arkansas closing earlier this week because of road conditions after a winter storm. The school was in session Friday. Some roads in the area remained icy, including the road around the lake.
Mayor Greg Hines said the city's Street Department didn't treat the road where the accident occurred.
"It is not a major road," Hines said. "It is a road contained in the park. There are hundreds of miles of streets in the city, and we don't treat half of them. There is no way to get to all of those roads. A road inside a park is not a high priority."
Dirt roads, such as the road around the park, also can be difficult to treat, Hines said.
"You can run a road grader into it but the issue you get into is that it refreezes," Hines said. "You end up with this repacked ice. There is no real good way to do it."
The city plans to close the road and make it into a bike trail, Hines said.
"There have been numbers of vehicles that have gone into the lake over the years," Hines said. "It happened to one of my friends in high school."
Hines said this is the first fatal accident he remembers at the lake.
"It is awfully tragic," Hines said. "My thoughts will be with the family that lost their son."
NW News on 02/22/2015