Five Young Women Killed In Fiery Car Crash
SUV Collided Head-On With Truck; Victims Killed Days After Graduating From N.Y. High School
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In these undated 2007 Fairport High School yearbook photos, Bailey Goodman, Meredith McClure, Hannah Congdon, (top) Sara Monnat and Katie Shirley (bottom) are shown. (AP Photo/Democrat & Chronicle)
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Charred debris and the twisted trailer of an 18-wheeler covers the roadside on Route 5 outside of East Bloomfield, N.Y., Wednesday, June 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Kris J. Murante)
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Fairport High School students comfort each other outside Fairport High School in Fairport, N.Y., Wednesday, June 27, 2007, after learning of the death of five recent graduates in a car-truck crash near Bloomfield, N.Y., late Tuesday. (AP Photo/Democrat & Chronicle)
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Their Chevrolet Trail Blazer had just passed a vehicle late Tuesday when it swerved back across the two-lane road into oncoming traffic and hit a tractor-trailer, the Ontario County Sheriff's Office said. Both vehicles caught fire.
The crash knocked down utility lines and cut phone service in the western half of Ontario County. The truck driver wasn't injured.
The victims were pronounced dead at the scene, deputies said.
Fairport High School Principal David Paddock said four of the women were members of the cheerleading squad — Bailey Goodman, Hannah Congdon, Meredith McClure and Sara Monnat — and he identified the fifth as Katie Shirley. All five graduated Thursday.
"It is with overwhelming sadness that I inform all of you that five of our children, all of whom just graduated from FHS last Thursday evening, lost their lives earlier tonight in a car accident," Paddock wrote in an e-mail sent to parents early Wednesday.
He said the victims had been heading to the Keuka Lake camp of a parent, and four friends were following in another car when the wreck occurred.
Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero said Bailey was driving the SUV.
Keisha Koneski, one of the cheerleading teammates who was following in the second car, told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that it appeared Bailey had tried to pass a van that was driving slowly in the right lane.
After almost passing the van, she said, it appeared Bailey may have thought the van was swerving into her lane and she jerked back into the left lane, running head-on into the tractor-trailer.
“We saw the truck and we all started screaming," she said.
The crash happened shortly after 10 p.m. along a 55-mph stretch just before the crest of a slight rise on a two-lane road in the rural town of East Bloomfield, a western Finger Lakes community about 20 miles southeast of Rochester.
The SUV landed on the side of the road and partially under the charred rig, which was being removed from the scene late Wednesday morning. A nearby maple tree was scorched by flames.
Sheriff Povero said it was clear that the fierceness of the impact caused various fuel lines to rupture, causing both vehicles to ignite.
“The fire trapped the five girls in the SUV. They were unable to escape," Lt. Bill Gallagher of the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. "Both vehicles were engulfed. There was no chance for rescue," he said.
Dozens of students, teachers and parents, some hugging and weeping, gathered Wednesday morning on a hillside overlooking the school, located in an Erie Canal village of about 6,000, about 10 miles southeast of Rochester.
Marcus Merriman, an 18-year-old student who knew all the victims, described Hannah Congdon as "probably my best friend."
"She always had a perfect smile on her face. She said 'hi' to everyone in the halls. She was very caring and sympathetic," he said.
"Our hearts just explode and it just makes the grieving so hard because we build such a community for youth," said Debra Tandoi, a town official who works with young people in the schools. "We love them all."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 111 CommentsCar accidents kill WAY more people than guns do.
My heart and prayers go out to the families.
Too many white crosses on the sides of the roads...
Why does this happen to our young and good people? We cannot know the answer. There is a poem about "Weaving" that we see the underside of what we weave but must wait until we are with Him and then see the upper side and why things were as they were. We can be content that the girls are with Him at this moment. Peace.
No words can adequately express what you are dealing with. The best that I have to offer is that I hope that you eventually find some peace.
Posted by mountainZen at 03:54 PM : Jun 27, 2007
True observation. Way too many. Vehicles are safer than ever before and still too many young lives lost. We can pray for the families.
How can a parent recover from such monumental loss?
I am sure we will never know what caused her to vere back again.
The local paper is monitoring the comments on its own web site, and I hope all respect this incident and not make any disrespectful insinuations. Thank you.
"Why aren't all the gun-control supporters calling for a ban on SUV's?"
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 04:47 PM : Jun 27, 2007
This is not the place to be pushing your agenda, have some thought and respect for the families of these young people.
Why don't you take your vitriole somewhere else and allow a little human decency to creep into your pathetic little life.
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 04:59 PM : Jun 27, 2007
Kind Sir, common sense these days is knowing when to sometimes, leave you opinion at the door and show a bit of compassion. Think of others on this post, please?? Thanks GunOwnerDan.....
We must teach our young people about the consequences of bad driving.
Something similar to this happened in Cheyenne a few months ago. A semi lost control at an intersection trying to avoid a car, it hit a light pole, burst into flames. The truck driver couldn't get out. Some young employees from a store ran out to the truck with fire extinguishers and tried to get the man out of the cab, but the fire was too intense. They could hear his screams as he died, but they could do nothing. It was horrible.
My prayers are with the families of these girls.
I hope we decide to train young drivers better than we do. There could have been more deaths than this if the truck had been a car instead. Perhaps me, and my child, as well.
This is so sad, and so predictable.
Five teenagers should never be allowed to ride together without an adult at the wheel. Doesn't anyone read about the statistics on multiple teens riding together? It's a recipe for disaster. It should simply be illegal.
Here in Australia, we have a similar frightening problem with younger drivers, not to necessarily say, that the driver was at fault in this instance, however according to recently released Government statistics, 30% of fatal accidents involve drivers under 25 years of age, but they represent just 7% of all licensed drivers in this country.
As no doubt is your country, ours is attempting to come to grips with the problem,.
I myself feel a large part of the cause, is with the advertising industry,in that they are always glorifying the advantages [???] of fast and high performance cars, and most despicable of all, the liquor industry, though they deny it, aim their advertising directly at young people, to entice them into consuming more of their product.
Of course the Authorities have to play a part with better dtriver education, and stronger controls on youth, with respect to their responsibilities in driving a vehicle.
Posted by GunOwnerDan at 04:59 PM : Jun 27, 2007
Dan, i have to agree with you on the gun control sh*t the leftwings are trying to pull. You make a valid point...why isn't Hilary F*cking Clinton here banning SUV's, smoking, ***(STD's), h*ll even rides at Six Flags. That aside i do feel for the families of these young women and hope this serves as a learning lesson for America's youth. Don't let these girl's deaths be in vain.
Parents these days aren't teaching their children the responsiblity of the real world. If these girls would have had to work to earn the money for a crappy, $2,000 p.o.s., I'm sure they wouldn't be hauling a$$ down the highway, passing "slower" vehicles. Mostly because their p.o.s. wouldn't let them do it.
NO teenage driver should have a brand new car, it's just a recipe for disaster.
Willyn3
I agree, very easy to forget him when after all he appears to have been a totaaly innocent person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I can see them looking through the rear view mirror and they seem frustrated because they think that either I'm speeding up or that they simply don't have enough room to get back on the lane.
In some cases I'll have a car that just passed me with at least 50 feet of space between us trying to get back to the lane and they'll be swerving back and forth not sure if they have enough room.
And I find that ridiculous. Why the last second doubt? Are people trying to be polite about it? Do they think I'm speeding up to make life difficult for them?
It's good to be careful when it comes to driving but you also have to be firm about it. If I'm driving slowly you have the right to pass me, and if it happens that I decide to speed up for whatever reason go ahead and get back on the lane.
If I hit you from behind IT'S MY FREAKING FAULT!
Sometimes I'll see people with their blinking lights on and looking at the rear view mirror for miles before they decide to change lanes.
If changing a freaking lane stresses you this much you shouldn't be driving, period.
i do however agree that no teenager should have a new care,and maybe even eliminate the possibility of teenagers driving under the parents insurance.
if teenagers these days had to buy their own auto,own insurance,etc...you would have more teens obeying the rules of the road and taking better care of the vehicles as well as themselves.
i dont know the specifics of this particular incident,so maybe what ive said does not pertain to it,but i still think if more kids EARNED the right to drive like the rest of us,we would see less reckless driving by teens.
anyhow,my thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these girls and also the driver of the rig....he has to live with this for the rest of his life too....very sad.
1) The decision to pass on two lane highway
2) Passing on the approach of a hill apex
3) SUV
The previous author, although opinionated, is dead wrong on discounting the SUV as a factor in this type of accident. The SUV is arguably the most significant factor.
As a former driver of an SUV, I guarantee you this accident wouldn't have happened in a BMW, or any car with speed appropriate handling character. The driver just wouldn't make the same error.
What a tragedy.
To those five girls, who died so young:
To all the things you never got, for all the dreams you never sought,
To all the hearts you%u2019ll never break, to all tears that are taking place.
Five girls%u2019 tragedies made unity take place, and it is truly by their amazing grace;
That others can come together, to comfort and help and give strength to one another.
To the parents, siblings, family and friends, their lives have so shortly come to an end.
Yet, they have touched so many lives, and candles are lit long into the night.
Be proud and strong for your little girls, for their beauty will still radiant into the world.
My sorrow is deep, and for strangers I weep;
Trying to make sense of this horrible time, and as an outsider, it is hard not to cry.
I am truly sorry for all your pain and I truly wish I could help take it away.
Don%u2019t give up hope and try not to place blame; I know in my heart they would say the same thing.
This was sooooo avoidable jsut bad choices:
There could have been less people in the car.
Driver could have actually paid attention.
Driver could have chosen not to take chance passing.
What makes me laugh at tragedy is this chick was so pampered she had a sweet suv. Getto kids don't often get in jet ski accidents, or down hill ski into a tree. She or her parents chose to let her drive when clearly she shouldn't have.
BTW. I'm lily white and came from a family of wealth, so I know of what I speak. Sometimes kids are just stupid.
I do feel bad for the families of the kids and realy bad for the truck driver. I just don't like the word tragedy used for what is so avoidable. Unless her axel broke or she ran over something, I wouldn't even call it an accident because she used poor judgement or wasn't paying attention. People should chose their words carefully.
Maybe: "it's a terrible thing that happened. I hope she was paying attention and it was a mechanical failure and my friend didn't wreck the lives of so many".
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