LEICESTER, Mass. (AP) – Four teenagers died Friday night in a high-speed car crash that left a fifth teen hospitalized in critical condition.
Leicester Police Chief Jim Hurley identified the four victims as Nathan R. Plaza, 17, of Leicester, Bryan T. Rossik, 17, of Leicester, Julianne Caron, 18, of North Brookfield, and Courtney Butcher, 18, of Worcester.
The only surviving passenger, Lauren Bennett, 17, of North Brookfield, was listed in critical condition Saturday at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester.
Hurley said the 2007 Scion, driven by Plaza, veered off a residential street and struck a tree along the right side of the roadway at about 11:45 p.m. Hurley said a state police accident reconstruction estimated that the Scion was traveling about 75 mph through the neighborhood. The road was straight, with a slight dip, in the area of the crash, he said.
Hurley said neither alcohol nor drugs was a factor in the accident.
“Numbers-wise, this the worst fatality I’ve seen in 25 years as a police officer,” he said.
Hurley said Plaza was a Leicester High School student, Rossik attended St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Caron attended North Brookfield High School and Butcher was a freshman at the University of New Hampshire. Bennett is a student at North Brookfield High School, Hurley said.
AP-ES-04-21-07 1434EDT
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