Five Orange County, Calif. high school students were killed in a car crash on their way to the beach Monday evening.
The victims-two boys and three girls, two of whom were sisters-were students at two high schools in the Irvine Unified School District, according to Orange County Sheriff's spokesperson Jim Amormino, who spoke with the Associated Press.
Abdulrahman Alyahyan, 17, Nozad Hamawendi, 17, Cecilia Zamora, 17, Aurora Cabrera, 16 and Robin Cabrera, 17, were headed to the beach on Jamboree Road toward Pacific Coast Highway, a main thoroughfare that conjoins a network of Orange County freeways.
Newport Beach Police Department spokesperson Kathy Lowe told the Los Angeles Times that the car, an Infiniti sedan, veered off the six-lane street and crashed into the center divider. The vehicle then hit a tree planted in the divider, split in two and erupted into an enormous fire.
Four of the victims were pronounced dead on site. The last victim died on the way to the Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in nearby city Mission Viejo.
Lowe said speed might have been a factor in the car accident.
She also noted that this was the most atrocious wreck Newport Beach has experienced "in recent memory."
"This is such a tragic accident when you have one car and all five occupants are dead," she said to the LA Times.
Newport Beach Fire Capt. Glenn White also told local Orange County paper the Daily Pilot that this was the worst he'd ever seen.
"I've been on duty for almost 30 years, and I've seen some terrible vehicular accidents," White said. "This was, if not the worst, one of the worst I've ever seen."
Grief counselors were called to University High School where one victim attended, and Irvine High school, where the other four went to school.
Students mourned outside of the public high schools on Tuesday, huddled together, crying, recounting memories of the deceased and leaving flowers at the foot of the tree that the sedan impaled.
One teenage boy, Tamer Mosallam, was supposed to go with the group on the beach trip. Right before his friends picked him up, however, his father forbade him to attend the Memorial Day excursion, as Tamer had to study for a test.
"I was supposed to be with them in the car, that's why there were three girls," Mosallam told the Associated Press, detailing plans for a three-way double date. "They came to my house but my dad wouldn't let me go out because I was studying for a test."
He and a few dozen other students came together outside Irvine High School to commemorate the lives of their deceased friends. Mosallam looked frightened and confused as he and the others gathered there tried to make sense of the accident.
Irvine Unified School District Superintendent Terry Walker released a statement following the deaths, intimating the community's deep grief.
"There are simply no words to convey the sorrow felt by our students and staff, nor are there sufficient answers to explain the loss of five vibrant teenagers from our schools and this community," he wrote.
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