DAWSONVILLE, Ga. — A Dawson County teen and star athlete died Monday night after she fell from the hood of a moving vehicle.
    Authorities said Anna Hawkins, 16, was car surfing, a dangerous practice often depicted in movies and on TV that involves standing on the hood of a moving vehicle, when the driver of the car lost control in a curve on Couch Road.
    A spokeswoman with the Georgia State Patrol Post in Cumming said the 16-year-old driver, whose name was not released, was traveling at an excessive rate of speed when the crash occurred about 9:45 p.m.
    “The driver was traveling at a high rate of speed and lost control,” said Robin Stone with GSP.
    The state patrol’s Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team was called to the scene and will determine any charges that may be brought against the driver, according to Stone.
    Dawson County School Superintendent Keith Porter called the accident “tragic.”
    “This is our worst nightmare, losing one of our kids,” he said.
    A rising junior at Dawson County High School, Hawkins played on the girls’ varsity soccer team her freshman and sophomore years.
    Dawson County Emergency Services Chief and Assistant Coroner Lanier Swafford said she died en route to Northside Hospital-Forsyth.
    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied the phenomenon and reported in 2008 that at least 99 people had died or sustained serious injuries while car surfing since 1990. CDC researchers reviewed newspaper reports to compile the research. It found that males were more likely to participate in the activity, and that injuries were reported in 31 states.
    It is difficult to know how many people are injured or killed while car-surfing because national injury surveillance systems, trauma registries, and death certificates lack sufficient detail to distinguish victims from others who have fallen from moving motor vehicles, the CDC reported.
    In their 2008 report, researchers noted that car-surfing was increasingly being filmed and posted on video-sharing websites.
    “However, these videos often do not portray the associated risk for injury or death,” the researchers wrote.
    This report contains information from The Associated Press.