Nightmare Crash Ends Prom Princess’s Dream Night

It was prom night, and the two Western High School seniors had done it up right. A limousine had whisked them to the bash at the Plaza de Cafes restaurant in Newport Beach, where they were honored by their classmates. He was named prom king. She, as his date, was a prom princess.

The dreamy night of Gregory Edwin Wells and Mary Young Park came to a horrible end at a lonely Anaheim intersection early Sunday morning when a pickup truck slammed into Wells’ 1967 Volkswagen, throwing the young woman from the car.

Mary Park, 18, of Buena Park was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Greg Wells, 18, of Anaheim was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange. He was in fair condition with numerous cuts and bruises.

The driver of the truck, 19 year-old Gary Gray of Norco, was also killed in the accident. A passenger in his truck, Frank Iovine, 18, was at UCI Medical Center in fair condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Results of a test to determine if alcohol was in Gray’s system will not be available for about 10 days, authorities said.

Wells’ father, Sam Wells, said his son had just dropped off the limousine, and he and Mary Park were on their way to a friend’s house when their car was hit about 2:45 a.m. Another car carrying friends was following close behind, Sam Wells said.

Wells was driving west on Ball Road when Gray’s truck, approaching from the north on Western Avenue, bolted through a red light and slammed into Wells’ car, witnesses told police.

Park, who was born in Korea, was the senior class vice president and helped plan a number of senior activities, school Principal Craig Haugen said. Although she did not play this year, Park had played on the school’s tennis team.

“She was totally popular,” said Jennifer Turley, a Western High junior who danced along with the couple at the prom.

Evon Cassier, 18, also a Western High senior, said Mary was her best friend and that she had danced all night at the prom.

“Everybody had such a good time,” she said. “Mary has her ups and downs; she can be cranky, but mostly she was just a really happy person. Everyone totally loved her. . . . She and Greg were really close, close friends.”

Cassier said she met Mary when the two were in the sixth grade at Orangeview Junior High School. “We’ve been friends for so long,” she said, weeping softly. “She was really ambitious, and she wanted everything out of life.”

Mary was in the school’s speech and pep clubs and planned to go to either Cal State Fullerton or Cal State Long Beach next fall and study broadcast journalism, Cassier said.

Wells is a varsity wrestler at high school and a surfer, Turley said. He plans to do a year of Mormon missionary work when he graduates, she said.

Turley, who lives across the street from the Wells family, was on her way home from the prom with her date when they came upon the scene of the accident. “Someone saw a yellow stripe on the (Volkswagen) Bug, and Greg has one like that,” she said. “My friends said let’s get out of here so I wouldn’t get upset. When I got home, I saw that Greg’s car wasn’t there. We drove back.”