![\"tragedy\"](\"https:\/\/nilescampbell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/tragedy.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe story below is one I wrote in the aftermath of just such a wreck. A bunch of high school students stopped by the site of a wreck that killed three of their friends and held a memorial service of sorts.<\/p>\n
Fauquier Times-Democrat Friay, June 3, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n
LHS students make roadside memorial<\/span><\/p>\n
By Steve Campbell, Times-Democrat Staff Writer<\/span><\/p>\n
Tire marks on the pavement point the way.<\/span><\/p>\n
Bark\u2019s off an ash tree.<\/span><\/p>\n
Tokens of friendship, of remembrance, lie beneath the tree.<\/span><\/p>\n
A black tie-dyed scarf hangs from a low branch. A hubcap leans against the tree trunk. A vase of red flowers, a potted red rose, a heart-shaped red balloon comprise a shrine of sorts, a goodbye from their friends, their best friends.<\/span><\/p>\n
Three of them gone.<\/span><\/p>\n
Nearby, a pile of debris remains, pieces of chrome, maroon interior upholstery, shattered glass.<\/span><\/p>\n
Shattered lives. Three young lives ended.<\/span><\/p>\n
On a blistering hot afternoon,\u00a0Wednesday, pickup trucks, minivans and cars roll by, drivers slowing, passengers looking out the window.<\/span><\/p>\n
Three former Liberty High School students died at about 3:30 p.m.\u00a0Tuesday in a single-car crash on Bealeton Road about a mile or so from Liberty High School.<\/span><\/p>\n
The driver of the 1986 Crown\u00a0Victoria, Ausha M. Sterlitz, 20, of Bealeton, along with Calyssa Leigh Wickham, 20, of Sumerduck, and\u00a0Michael Dominic Montessi, 16,of Midland, died here.<\/span><\/p>\n
Two other passengers, Devon Alexander Sterlitz, 18, of Bealeton, and Jacob Moore, 17, of Bealeton were airlifted to INOVA Fairfax Hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n
After school on Wednesday, friends of the car-crash victims made a pilgrimage to site of the accident.<\/span><\/p>\n
The students, ranging in age from 15 to 18, arrive in clusters of two or three, parking in a nearby field and walking the short distance down the scorching hot asphalt to the spot on a sharp curve, where a yellow caution sign, partially obscured by overgrown brush, warns of a 20 mph limit.<\/span><\/p>\n
The driver lost control on the curve, hit the tree broadside.\u00a0Police say speed was a factor.<\/span><\/p>\n
Slowly, a small crowd of Liberty High School students and a few parents gather \u2014 staring in silence at the tree, a good-sized one, possibly ash with a 2-foot wide bare spot where the impact knocked off the bark.<\/span><\/p>\n
Hugs, tears, red faces, quiet sobs, the students hold an impromptu memorial service for their departed friends.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cDear Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for letting some folks show up,\u201d prayed Frankie Tierney, 19, of Bealeton.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cHelp Devon and everybody get better. Sucks that you had to take a life from us. They were very, very much loved, and will not be forgotten,\u201d he said, voice breaking.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cPlease be with the family and all the loved ones. In God\u2019s name, amen.\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n
Girls weep. Boys quickly blink away tears.<\/span><\/p>\n
April Clark, standing in the shade of the tree, shielded the flame of a lighter from the warm breeze as she lit white tapered candles and passed them to the students making a semicircle around the makeshift shrine.<\/span><\/p>\n
Together they stand in awkward silence, holding their candles.<\/span><\/p>\n
After a bit, Alex Bell, 18, and Michael Blevins, 18, arrive with a home-made wooden cross and a can of white spray paint. The students take turns covering the cross with white enamel.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cWe meant it to be for everybody, that\u2019s why we let everybody paint it,\u201d Bell said.<\/span><\/p>\n
Bell and Blevins, joined by Tierney, use rope to tie the cross to the tree. They\u2019ll come back later to dig a hole and plant the cross with cement.<\/span><\/p>\n
April Clark called Montessi, known as \u201cMikey\u201d to friends, her best friend. Her favorite memory?<\/span><\/p>\n
Giggling she said, \u201cI don\u2019t think we can speak of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite time was when me, him and Devon and Caitlin were all chillin\u2019 and we had a bonfire at his house,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cHe was awesome, funny, always smiling, and he\u2019d just say stupid stuff and make you laugh,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n
The students heard about the accident almost immediately\u00a0after it happened. Tierney had heard that \u201cMikey\u201d was killed.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was saying this kid Mikey died, but I didn\u2019t know it was my Mikey,\u201d he said of his best friend.<\/span><\/p>\n
Several of the students live in the Marsh Run trailer park and sometimes get poked fun at because of it. But they wear their address as a badge of honor.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we would do something [in school], the teachers would say it\u2019s because y\u2019all are from the trailer park,\u201d\u00a0Tierney said, causing April and some of the others to start laughing.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s \u2018because we\u2019re from the trailer park,\u2019\u201d she said, laughing.<\/span><\/p>\n
Tiffani Lambert, 17, called Calyssa Leigh Wickham, known\u00a0as Caly to friends, \u201can amazing girl at heart. Montessi always had a smile and could always put a smile on your face.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, he was the class clown, always running around, always laughing, always having a good time. He was just all around a good person,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n
Lisa Needham, a school bus driver who\u2019s known the students for most of their lives, stood on the sidelines and watched the memorial.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother heard Caly sing at church. She said you\u2019d never know it to look at her, because Caly had piercings and colored hair, but my mom said that child sang and she had the voice of an angel, so pure, so innocent,\u201d Needham said.<\/span><\/p>\n
Mary Penna, mother of April, said of the accident, \u201cI hope this was her wake up call last night.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame,\u201d she said choking back tears, \u201clittle lives taken.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Tierney had his own brush with death about a month ago when he wrecked his girl friend\u2019s car doing 70 mph on Remington Road.\u00a0\u201cWe got lucky and nobody got hurt,\u201d he said. \u201cBetter be safe than sorry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Emerald Daigle, 16, said, \u201cas a teen, you never think this going to be my friend. You always think it\u2019s going to be someone else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, you know what?\u201d Needham said, \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be\u00a0any of y\u2019all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it happens every year. All the children think, \u2018I\u2019m invincible, that won\u2019t happen to me,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a horrible situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Kevin Mcmanus brought his 15-year-old son, Evan, to the scene of the accident as an object lesson.\u00a0\u201cHe just started driving and I\u2019m just bringing him by to give him a wake up call,\u201d Mcmanus said of the of the Liberty High School freshman.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI just took my 17-year-old to the judge and he brought up the Bull Run Mountain crash in Haymarket,\u201d Mcmanus said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s [auto accident] the leading cause of death for people between 15 and 19.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Here’s a pdf of the story:<\/span><\/p>\n