ArmoredFist
02-28-2004, 12:48 AM
I knew these kids...
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Community mourns teens killed in crash
By Rich Harbert
MPG Newspapers
PLYMOUTH (Feb 25)- A collection of poems and pictures rises to eye level around the tree at 1092 State Road, all but covering the ugly scar of impact.
A football helmet, a dirt-bike magazine, teddy bears, candles, balloons and flowers mark the site where Ryan O'Rourke and Chris Welsh died last weekend. A poster encourages survivor Chad Correa to stay strong.
O'Rourke and Welsh died and Correa was seriously injured Saturday night when their speeding car crashed broadside into the tree just south of Manomet center.
The boys, all 16-year-old Plymouth South High School students, were headed south on State Road, police said, when O'Rourke lost control of his 2002 Pontiac Firebird convertible on the wet road shortly after 9 p.m. O'Rourke died on impact and Welsh, a front seat passenger, died before emergency crews could free him from the wreckage.
Correa, the son of one of the firefighters who responded to the crash, was trapped in the crushed back seat of the car for more than an hour. Police said he suffered serious leg injuries in the accident. He was listed in fair condition at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston on Tuesday.
"It's one of the worst nightmares for any firefighter living in town, to come across an accident and find it's one of your own," Deputy Chief Donald Brown said of Steven Correa, a veteran Cedarville firefighter whose crew was second on the scene of the crash.
Captain's Landing resident Janice Hoyt said she and her husband were coming home from dinner on the waterfront when they rounded a bend in the road and saw what looked like a car in a tree. On closer inspection, it appeared the other way around.
"I couldn't believe what I saw," Hoyt said. "I thought it was a car facing upwards in a tree. We could hear the kids saying, 'Get us out of here, get us out of here.'...The tree was inside the car."
Police Capt. Michael Botieri said it appears that high speed, wet roads and driver inexperience were to blame for the crash. O'Rourke got his junior driver's license in early January and should not have been driving with his young friends. The license restricts junior operators from driving with anyone under 18, excluding immediate family, unless a licensed adult is in the front passenger seat.
Botieri said Steven Correa responded with fellow members of Engine 6 and was restrained by colleagues after learning that his son was a victim of the crash. Correa accompanied his son in the ambulance to Jordan Hospital and later to Boston. The O'Rourke and Welsh families learned their sons' fates at the hospital.
Friends said the three Cedarville boys had been friends for years.
Shawn Costa, an employee of Powerhouse Gym in Cedarville, said the friendships dated to Indian Brook Elementary School, where the crash victims went to grade school.
"I've known Chris since he was in fourth grade, a wonderful, wonderful kid," Costa said of Welsh.
A sophomore who played football and basketball, Welsh was an avid weightlifter who frequented Powerhouse Gym since it opened two years ago. He planned on joining the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from high school to carry on a family tradition, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, uncle and cousin.
O'Rourke, a junior, enjoyed riding dirt bikes and snowboarding, friends said.
"He was quiet and shy but always nice and smiling," said Callie Everett, a Plymouth South junior and one of many schoolmates who made the pilgrimage to the crash site after school on Monday.
Everett and her friend, Jenna Sewall, deposited roses in their friend's memory. Scores of others offered similar tributes.
By Tuesday, the tree was covered with floral arrangements and poems. Some of the writers recalled better days. Others offered hope. "You're in our hearts now where you'll always be safe," one wrote.
Costa said students at the high school have had a difficult time coping with the loss. Their grief and anguish overflowed Sunday night into an impromptu memorial service at St. Bonaventure's Church, where Welsh was a student in the confirmation class.
Rev. Ken Overbeck said about 150 teens attended the service and were clearly upset, sobbing through readings and songs.
"I was just trying to give them a reason to hope, to give them hope that despite the tragedy we can still trust God, we still have a future and God is working for everyone's good, that we have to believe that even thought they can't see or understand, God has something in store for Ryan and Chris in heaven and for Chad here, and you can't just give up," said Overbeck.
Sophomore Julie Osberg said the halls at school on Monday were more subdued than usual.
"It was eerie," she said. "You could tell who their close friends were just by the looks on their faces."
Junior Todd Kierstead agreed.
"All the classes were quiet, just reflecting on what happened," he said. "It was an eye-opener because I have a car and everything. I hope people learn from this experience."
Kierstead said that O'Rourke's and Welsh's lockers were decorated with poems, pictures and messages. Students congregated silently near the lockers.
Principal Robert O'Day said grief counselors would be available for students throughout the week.
"It is a terrible tragedy," O'Day said. "My heart goes out to the families."
As many as 200 students held a candlelight vigil at the State Road crash site Monday night.
Emergency flashers from parked cars lit a path for motorists for more than an hour as the teens paid silent tribute to all three boys. The quiet was eerily broken once, when an ambulance and fire engine drove by en route to another emergency.
The Davis Funeral Home is in charge of funeral arrangements for both victims.
Visiting hours for Welsh were held yesterday (Tuesday) and will continue today (Wednesday) from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Davis Funeral Home at 619 State Road in Manomet.
A funeral mass will be held for Welsh tomorrow (Thursday) at 10 a.m. at St. Bonaventure's Church. Burial will be in St. Joseph's Cemetery.
A funeral service will be held for O'Rourke on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the funeral home. Burial will be in Vine Hills Cemetery. Visiting hours will be at the funeral home from 4 to 9 p.m. on Friday.
Staff writers Ann Luongo and Lynn Wohlwend contributed to this story.
==============================================
Community mourns teens killed in crash
By Rich Harbert
MPG Newspapers
PLYMOUTH (Feb 25)- A collection of poems and pictures rises to eye level around the tree at 1092 State Road, all but covering the ugly scar of impact.
A football helmet, a dirt-bike magazine, teddy bears, candles, balloons and flowers mark the site where Ryan O'Rourke and Chris Welsh died last weekend. A poster encourages survivor Chad Correa to stay strong.
O'Rourke and Welsh died and Correa was seriously injured Saturday night when their speeding car crashed broadside into the tree just south of Manomet center.
The boys, all 16-year-old Plymouth South High School students, were headed south on State Road, police said, when O'Rourke lost control of his 2002 Pontiac Firebird convertible on the wet road shortly after 9 p.m. O'Rourke died on impact and Welsh, a front seat passenger, died before emergency crews could free him from the wreckage.
Correa, the son of one of the firefighters who responded to the crash, was trapped in the crushed back seat of the car for more than an hour. Police said he suffered serious leg injuries in the accident. He was listed in fair condition at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston on Tuesday.
"It's one of the worst nightmares for any firefighter living in town, to come across an accident and find it's one of your own," Deputy Chief Donald Brown said of Steven Correa, a veteran Cedarville firefighter whose crew was second on the scene of the crash.
Captain's Landing resident Janice Hoyt said she and her husband were coming home from dinner on the waterfront when they rounded a bend in the road and saw what looked like a car in a tree. On closer inspection, it appeared the other way around.
"I couldn't believe what I saw," Hoyt said. "I thought it was a car facing upwards in a tree. We could hear the kids saying, 'Get us out of here, get us out of here.'...The tree was inside the car."
Police Capt. Michael Botieri said it appears that high speed, wet roads and driver inexperience were to blame for the crash. O'Rourke got his junior driver's license in early January and should not have been driving with his young friends. The license restricts junior operators from driving with anyone under 18, excluding immediate family, unless a licensed adult is in the front passenger seat.
Botieri said Steven Correa responded with fellow members of Engine 6 and was restrained by colleagues after learning that his son was a victim of the crash. Correa accompanied his son in the ambulance to Jordan Hospital and later to Boston. The O'Rourke and Welsh families learned their sons' fates at the hospital.
Friends said the three Cedarville boys had been friends for years.
Shawn Costa, an employee of Powerhouse Gym in Cedarville, said the friendships dated to Indian Brook Elementary School, where the crash victims went to grade school.
"I've known Chris since he was in fourth grade, a wonderful, wonderful kid," Costa said of Welsh.
A sophomore who played football and basketball, Welsh was an avid weightlifter who frequented Powerhouse Gym since it opened two years ago. He planned on joining the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from high school to carry on a family tradition, following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, uncle and cousin.
O'Rourke, a junior, enjoyed riding dirt bikes and snowboarding, friends said.
"He was quiet and shy but always nice and smiling," said Callie Everett, a Plymouth South junior and one of many schoolmates who made the pilgrimage to the crash site after school on Monday.
Everett and her friend, Jenna Sewall, deposited roses in their friend's memory. Scores of others offered similar tributes.
By Tuesday, the tree was covered with floral arrangements and poems. Some of the writers recalled better days. Others offered hope. "You're in our hearts now where you'll always be safe," one wrote.
Costa said students at the high school have had a difficult time coping with the loss. Their grief and anguish overflowed Sunday night into an impromptu memorial service at St. Bonaventure's Church, where Welsh was a student in the confirmation class.
Rev. Ken Overbeck said about 150 teens attended the service and were clearly upset, sobbing through readings and songs.
"I was just trying to give them a reason to hope, to give them hope that despite the tragedy we can still trust God, we still have a future and God is working for everyone's good, that we have to believe that even thought they can't see or understand, God has something in store for Ryan and Chris in heaven and for Chad here, and you can't just give up," said Overbeck.
Sophomore Julie Osberg said the halls at school on Monday were more subdued than usual.
"It was eerie," she said. "You could tell who their close friends were just by the looks on their faces."
Junior Todd Kierstead agreed.
"All the classes were quiet, just reflecting on what happened," he said. "It was an eye-opener because I have a car and everything. I hope people learn from this experience."
Kierstead said that O'Rourke's and Welsh's lockers were decorated with poems, pictures and messages. Students congregated silently near the lockers.
Principal Robert O'Day said grief counselors would be available for students throughout the week.
"It is a terrible tragedy," O'Day said. "My heart goes out to the families."
As many as 200 students held a candlelight vigil at the State Road crash site Monday night.
Emergency flashers from parked cars lit a path for motorists for more than an hour as the teens paid silent tribute to all three boys. The quiet was eerily broken once, when an ambulance and fire engine drove by en route to another emergency.
The Davis Funeral Home is in charge of funeral arrangements for both victims.
Visiting hours for Welsh were held yesterday (Tuesday) and will continue today (Wednesday) from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Davis Funeral Home at 619 State Road in Manomet.
A funeral mass will be held for Welsh tomorrow (Thursday) at 10 a.m. at St. Bonaventure's Church. Burial will be in St. Joseph's Cemetery.
A funeral service will be held for O'Rourke on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the funeral home. Burial will be in Vine Hills Cemetery. Visiting hours will be at the funeral home from 4 to 9 p.m. on Friday.
Staff writers Ann Luongo and Lynn Wohlwend contributed to this story.