Jackson student dies after traffic accident

A Jackson High School basketball player who lost control of the vehicle he was driving was one of two area residents who died Sunday as the result of accidents.

Jason Schafer, 17, was driving on County Road 621 eight miles north of Cape Girardeau when the 11:17 p.m. accident occurred Sunday. He lost control on a curve, and his vehicle slid off the left side of the roadway and struck a tree. He was ejected from the vehicle, which came to rest in a creek.

Schafer was flown to Saint Francis Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 12:50 a.m.

Schafer, whose family lives in rural Cape Girardeau, was a varsity basketball starter for Jackson High School his junior year and was beginning his senior year. He had played on AAU and USSA traveling teams at various colleges and was looking forward to playing college basketball.

He was also a member of Jackson's Future Business Leaders of America and was active in his church's recreational basketball league. At Jackson High School Monday, a quiet room with counselors was set up where students could go if they needed to talk about their classmate's death. Counselors were following Schafer's class schedule, visiting with each class he was in.

"If they take it too hard, we'll notify parents and let them leave," said assistant principal Vince Powell.

A 23-year-old Perry County motorist, Jeremy Koenig of Perryville, died Sunday at Saint Francis Medical Center of injuries he received in a single-vehicle accident Sept. 13. The accident occurred on Route T, a mile east of Perry County Road 726. Koenig's 1999 GMC Sonoma rounded a curve and traveled off the right side of the road. The driver overcorrected and was thrown from the vehicle as it began to overturn, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.