Town Mourns Cheerleaders Killed In Crash

Hundreds of points of light dotted a hillside outside a suburban Rochester high school where a candlelight vigil was held last night in memory of the five young women who died in a fiery car crash.

Officials at Fairport High School say grief counselors will be available this week for the classmates of the five victims, all members of Fairport's class of 2007.

The teens were among nine recent graduates headed to a family cottage in the Finger Lakes when their SUV collided head-one with a tractor-trailer and burst into flames.

"We cheerleaded together and we were all best friends," said Keisha Koneski, 18, who witnessed the fiery collision along a 55-mph highway in western New York's pastoral Finger Lakes region. "In our (trailing) car, we could see the truck coming and we all started screaming."

The tragedy happened just five days after the teens graduated from Fairport High School, triggering an outpouring of emotion in this Erie Canal village of 6,000 some 10 miles southeast of Rochester.

"It could be any five that were lost — we would grieve the same," said Debra Tandoi, a town official who works with young people in the village's schools. "Our hearts just explode."

The victims had just overtaken a van when their sport utility vehicle swerved back across the two-lane road into the oncoming tractor-trailer shortly after 10 p.m. on Tuesday night.

"There may have been an overcorrection causing the vehicle to re-enter the (oncoming) lane," Ontario County Sheriff Phil Povero said.

The SUV and the truck careered into a roadside fence next to a bed-and-breakfast hostel outside the village of East Bloomfield and caught fire, sending flames shooting at least 20 feet into the air. The SUV ended up crushed and charred in a shallow ditch partially underneath the truck.

An overhanging maple tree was scorched, and blackened debris littered the road. The crash knocked down a utility line and cut phone service in the western half of Ontario County. The truck driver, Dave Laverty, 50, was not injured.

Killed were Bailey Goodman and Meredith McClure, both 17, and 18-year-olds Sara Monnat, Hannah Congdon and Katherine "Katie" Shirley. All five were cheerleaders in high school, but Shirley left the squad in her freshman year.

"It's a community nightmare," school Principal Dave Paddock said. "Our hearts are broken. We love our kids and are crying."

Scores of students, teachers and parents, many of them hugging and weeping, gathered on a grassy hillside overlooking the school on Wednesday morning. A giant numeral "'07" had been painted on the hillside by senior pranksters two weeks ago.

The nine women were planning a sleep-over at a cottage along Keuka Lake owned by Bailey Goodman's parents, said Koneski, who befriended her when she moved to Fairport from a nearby suburb four years ago.

"She made me her best friend in eighth grade when I moved to Fairport High," Koneski said. "She helped me make friends and she was always there for me, no matter what. All of us have just been best friends since then.

"We took pictures of each other, we used to just hang out in other people's houses," she said. "Especially when it's warm, we always have pool parties and stuff and have all our friends over."

Goodman, who was driving the SUV, had been trying for a few minutes to pass a van that was going only about 40 miles an hour, Koneski said. "When Bailey started passing, it looked like the van was speeding up because she was next to the van for a really long time," she said.

The cause of the crash remained under investigation, but Povero said no witnesses had given any indication the van speeded up "to avoid being passed."

"We'll certainly take this into consideration and follow this up," he said.

Autopsies were being conducted, including routine tests for the presence of drugs or alcohol, Povero said.

In March, the Fairport High cheerleading team took first place in a "large varsity-level 5" category at the American Open National Cheer and Dance Championship in Orlando, Fla. McClure placed second in solo cheering in the 16-to-18-year-old bracket. The team also placed in several regional and state competitions this year, including a first place at the Monroe County tournament in January.

Paddock spoke at a church service Wednesday morning for the victims. He told CBS affiliate WHAM's Brendan O'Riordan that in order to break the tension, he told a story about a light that was shining through the church.

"I said to the congregation that was in there that you see that light coming down, you know that's the girls right now and they're up there in cheerleader heaven, because they were cheerleaders, and they're looking down and they're saying, 'Wow Mr. Paddock, look at all the people that love me,'" Paddock told O'Riordan in an interview. "My response was, 'This is nothing. Wait till you see the next couple of days.'"