Tears Take Place of Festivities : Tragedy: Auto accident that claimed seven lives leaves friends and relatives in a state of disbelief. The victims were heading for a July 4 celebration.

Lily Searles had planned for a festive Fourth of July at her South Los Angeles home--a back-yard barbecue for about 30 and fireworks for the numerous youngsters who were sure to come by.

“It was going to be a good time,” Searles said.

Instead, the atmosphere inside the small, brown, wood-framed home on West 108th Street Saturday was one of stunned silence. Visitors crowded into the tiny living room stared at each other. Searles just nodded her head in disbelief.

Her 23-year-old daughter, Rosella Searles, and an infant granddaughter were among seven family members and friends who died in a fiery head-on crash Thursday night. The young woman and infant were among nine people squeezed into a tiny 1985 Dodge Omni headed west on the Pomona Freeway in Chino. Rosella, who was driving, lost control of the car and it hit at least two autos before it crossed the road and was crushed in the eastbound lanes by a freight truck near the Mountain Avenue off-ramp.

All but one of the dead were ejected from the Omni upon impact. The truck driver was injured, as were two other passengers in the Omni.

“I just can’t believe one accident could take them all away like that,” Searles said.

Friends said the carload of relatives and youngsters were returning from Riverside to South Los Angeles for the Fourth of July. Among them was an unidentified male friend from Riverside, who was invited for the holiday gathering. He also died in the crash.

Searles said her daughter called about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, saying she and two girlfriends, with several of their youngsters along for the ride, had just picked up the friend and were on their way home.

“The next call I got is that they were all killed,” Searles said.

Among the dead, according to friends, were Robin Hart, 23, a high school friend of Rosella Searles; Genesha Searles, the 15-month-old daughter of Hart and Lily Searles’ son, and Hart’s 12-year-old brother, Dominique Holland.

Also dead were two small children believed to be the children of Willie Johnson, 18, a longtime friend of Hart and Rosella Searles. The trio had attended Dominguez High School in Compton together.

Johnson and her daughter, Laquisha Rollins, 4, were in critical condition with severe head and chest injuries, friends said.

Officials with the California Highway Patrol in San Bernardino County said Saturday that they have yet to identify several victims because their bodies were burned beyond recognition.

Sitting among friends, Lily Searles appeared the stoic matriarch who could only think of the four children--all of them younger than 6--that her daughter left behind.

“It’s awfully hard,” she said, “but what am I going to do? Rosella left four babies behind.”

Rosella Searles’ 5-year-old twins, Derreshia and Derresha, clung to their grandmother as she spoke, occasionally gazing skyward at the ceiling.

Told that her mother had “gone to heaven,” another daughter, 4-year-old Derresa, said:

“Can I fly up there to be with her?”

Rosella Searles was also survived by a 1-year-old daughter, Dequita.

There were still unanswered questions for family members Saturday: Why did nine passengers, including four adults, squeeze into the compact car for the drive back from Riverside?

Searles had no answer but a family friend, Orion Moore, did not hesitate to guess.

“Hey, that’s poverty,” he said. “They had only one car. So they all went.”

Moore also wondered aloud whether the carnage might have been avoided if a concrete center divider had been in place on that section of freeway. The eastbound and westbound lanes of the freeway at the point of the accident--near Mountain Avenue--are separated by a 60-foot-wide banked dirt median.

CHP Sgt. Tom Joy said there is no way of knowing for certain because Rosella Searles died in the crash. The CHP’s investigation into the crash was not expected to be completed for several days, he said.

Family members said donations to aid Rosella Searles’ four young children may be sent to the Praises of Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 8222 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles 90003.