More Tears for Teens Lost in Crashes

After Ninth Md. Death In the Past Two Weeks, Another School Grieves

It was an uncomfortably familiar scene at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville last night: students gathered to remember classmates suddenly lost. Like young people in La Plata, Calvert County and Wheaton in recent weeks, these students came to mourn friends killed in cars driven by teenagers.

Oswaldo Rosales and Ricardo Orellana, 16-year-old Montgomery students who died after the car they were riding in struck a tree Monday, brought to nine the number of teenagers killed on suburban Maryland roads in two weeks. And last night, two teenagers were critically injured when their car flipped over in Anne Arundel County.

"This time it really hit close to home," Nicole Masoudpour, 18, a recent graduate who helped teach English to Rosales two years ago, said of the Rockville crash. "I don't think teenagers realize how truly serious this is."

Behind her, several dozen teenagers and adults, holding lighted candles, formed semicircles around photographs of the two teens.

"It's like a life-changing experience," Marvin Sandoval, 16, said after school yesterday, talking with other friends of the two students who died. "You put yourself in their position, and you really think: That could have been me."

Just a day earlier, Rosales and Orellana had lingered on campus, part of an informal group that often stayed after classes to help a teacher or take merengue lessons, several students said. The two often caught rides home with another student, Jose Miguel Gomez, 19, who was driving the car Monday, the students said. Gomez is recovering from injuries not considered life-threatening.

"Everyone has been down all day," said Vanessa Carrasco, 16. "People realize that we're never going to see them again."

Police said Gomez was driving a 1997 Nissan Altima south on Avery Road, a winding lane with no shoulders along the RedGate Golf Course near Norbeck Road. He apparently lost control; no other vehicle was involved.

Rosales, of Sandy Spring, who was in the front passenger seat, died Monday. Orellana, of Rockville, died yesterday. Montgomery County police said they thought only the driver was wearing a seat belt. They are investigating the accident's cause and said they could not say whether excessive speed or alcohol played a role.

The high school informed parents in a letter that counselors have been made available for students and staff members. Some of the teens' friends, students said, gathered in a classroom after school to discuss the tragedy.

"Both Oswaldo and Ricardo were bright, kind and vibrant students who were well liked by their peers," the letter said. "Their teachers described them as caring, high achieving and promising students."

At Rosales's house on Norwood Road, his family was mourning a son and brother they described as active and scholastic. Rosales was an honors student who loved to read and fish on the Chesapeake Bay, they said. He had a keen interest in government.