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Brett Gould

Just days before he died, 18-year-old Maine Maritime Academy student Brett Gould talked with his mother about drinking in college.

His mother, Cheryl Smith, asked him about an incident at the Castine college involving underage drinking.

He told her that as a member of the Regiment of Midshipmen program, he would get kicked out if caught with alcohol.

"There is no alcohol, no drinking. You don't go back to campus that way," she said he assured her.

Only he did. A few weeks into his freshman year, Brett, of Benedicta, died in an alcohol-related car crash.

Six months after their conversation about college drinking, his mother still cannot talk about Brett, her third son, without openly weeping.

On Nov. 4, a Sunday night, Brett was driving two friends back to school from a weekend of partying in Orono when his two-door Chevrolet Cavalier failed to negotiate a sharp curve on Route 166, less than a half mile from the college.

The car rolled over and struck an embankment. Brett, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the car, which landed on top of him, killing him instantly.

His passengers were not seriously hurt.

His hometown friend and college classmate Brandon McAvoy, 18, of Benedicta, walked away without injury, and classmate Eric Ravasz, 18, of Lamont, Ill., suffered minor injuries. Both declined to be interviewed about the crash.

Although a toxicology report is not yet available from the state Medical Examiner's Office, Maine State Police believe alcohol was a factor, said investigating Trooper Tom Pickering.

A container of hard alcohol was found in the car, and the two passengers admitted there had been drinking.

Brett's mother was not the only one who had warned him about underage drinking.

Maine Maritime officials said they had done everything they could think of to prevent this kind of accident.

Deirdre Davis, dean of students, said alcohol is allowed only at the campus snack bar and at a single apartment-style residential hall that is home to 30 older students.

For the first time this year, the academy required all incoming freshmen to take a three-hour alcohol education course within their first 30 days at school.

Davis said the academy has searched for patterns among its students who abuse alcohol.

She said the problems do not appear to be greater among any one group, such as athletes.

"There is no major group that jumps out," she said.

The college dismisses students who violate the college's alcohol policies for a third time, Davis said.

The college also works closely with the Hancock County Sheriff's Office, which keeps a database of the 250 students who live off campus and regularly patrols those areas.

But none of this stopped Brett from drinking at parties he attended that weekend in Orono.

His father, Tom Gould of Rutland, Mass., said his son's friends told him that Brett had consumed only three beers on the day of the crash but had stayed up late drinking the night before.

"It was the partying and the fatigue," he said.

Gould was surprised his son was not wearing a seat belt, another indication to him that Brett was tired. Normally, his son buckled up religiously, he said.

Gould also had pointed out to his son the dangerous curve in the road where the accident took place.

His parents say Brett was a well-liked teenager whose only run-in with police was a traffic ticket for driving too fast.

At Katahdin High School, he was a member of the National Honor Society, president of the student council and a standout on the basketball and golf teams.

At Maine Maritime Academy, he enrolled in the Regiment of Midshipmen program with a goal of getting into commercial shipping for a few years after graduation to pay off his loans.

Then, like an uncle in whose footsteps he was following, he would move into power-plant...