At the time of the accident Lolies was riding his motorcycle home from his job at the Longhorn Steakhouse, a local restaurant. As he crested a hill, he could not see the road in front of him and ran into a car turning onto the street, according to Lolies' longtime friend, Harrison Simmons.
Lolies' motorcycle was traveling at a high rate of speed at the time of the crash, DeKalb County police spokesman Marcus Hodge told The Gwinnet Daily Report. Lolies was killed upon impact and nobody else at the scene was injured.
Lolies was living at home in Georgia this term due to an affliction of Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal system. Lolies had also taken off the Spring and Summer term of his sophomore year due to his ailment.
During his time at Dartmouth, Lolies was a genetics major, an avid member of the swim team and a writer for the Dartmouth Review.
Simmons, a friend and swimming-mate of Lolies since childhood, acted as a pallbearer at the funeral held yesterday in Stone Mountain.
"It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do," Simmons said. "Carrying your friend's casket is not one of those things you want to do at 20."
Simmons described Lolies as fun-loving, saying he was a friend to everyone he met.
"Ben was one of those people who's only willing to do for others. Always there when you need him, someone you could always talk to," Simmons said. "I couldn't say anything bad about him."
Friends from the swim team remember Lolies as a dedicated athlete who pushed himself despite his physical condition.
"You could see everyday how much he wanted to be at practice, how much he wanted to swim," Joseph Braunreuther '08, captain of the swim team, said. "He was really passionate about it."
The swim team created a card in Lolies's memory and sent it to his family to be read at his funeral.
They plan to have a moment of silence in his honor at their next swim meet and will wear Dartmouth swim and dive T-shirts on Tuesday as a tribute to their teammate.
Lolies planned to return to Dartmouth and swim for the team when his health allowed, Simmons said.
He was going to start taking classes at a local college, and was negotiating with Dartmouth to make sure his credits were transferred, he added.
Lolies's parents asked in their son's obituaries that well-wishers donate to Ben's high-school, Providence Christian Academy, in lieu of buying flowers.
Attempts to contact the parents of Lolie were unsuccessful at the time this story went to press.
Simmons expressed hope that Lolies had left them for a better place.
"I feel that Ben is with God now and that he's looking down on us," he said.
