School Mourns 2 Youths Killed in Car Crash

As the smoke of burning incense drifted skyward, sobbing students sang prayers in Armenian in a parking lot at Crescenta Valley High School on Tuesday, performing an Armenian funeral ritual called Khoung for two classmates killed in a mountain car crash.

Sevag (Steve) Cholakian, 15, of Montrose and David Gevorkyan, 14, of Glendale, both sophomores, died Monday when their car hurtled off the Angeles Crest Highway, officials said. The car’s driver, Malineh Martussian, 19, of Glendale was in critical condition Tuesday, and Suzan Guluzian, 15, of La Canada was in serious condition.

They were saved only after a fifth passenger, Polek Aladadyan, 14, of La Crescenta, crawled 500 feet up an embankment--with a broken pelvis--to get help, officials said.

All those in the car were students at Crescenta Valley High School, and the crash and deaths jolted this tightknit community, which has a large population of recent Armenian immigrants.

Students brought incense for the Khoung ritual to school Tuesday morning. Armenian tradition holds that the burning incense carries mourners’ sorrow and prayers to the deceased in heaven.

“The smoke takes up whatever we say to them,” said Alex Mousaian, 17, a junior. The ritual “makes everyone love each other much more.”

As counselors from around the community poured into the school Tuesday, students stumbled to class, sobbing and holding hands.

“They were just boys, just kids,” said Roobina Babakhanian, 16.

Sally Baghdasarian pictured her vivacious friend Martussian unconscious in a bed at County-USC Medical Center. “I just can’t believe it. From all that smiling (before the accident), she’s lying there in critical condition,” she said. “I’m just in shock.”

The five students skipped school Monday to celebrate several birthdays--including that of Guluzian, who turned 15 Tuesday--by driving into the San Gabriel Mountains that rim Pasadena, Glendale and the Crescenta Valley on the north, said CHP Officer Bob Shepard.

Martussian, a senior, was driving west through the Angeles National Forest at about 45 m.p.h. on a 55-m.p.h. section of the Angeles Crest Highway when she lost control of the car at the mile 42 marker near the Mt. Wilson turnoff road, said CHP Sgt. Ralph Elvira.

“At that point, the road is virtually carved out of the side of the hill,” said Terry Ellis of the U.S. Forest Service. “We caution people to be very safety-conscious when they drive, but it’s a road that can get you into trouble if you’re not paying attention.”

The car drifted onto the dirt shoulder of the road, skidded back across the highway, struck a cement lip running alongside the pavement, and rolled over it, hurtling 500 feet down the side of the mountain, Elvira said.

Cholakian, in the rear seat, was not wearing his seat belt and was thrown from the car. Both the teen-agers in the front wore seat belts, but Gevorkyan in the passenger seat was killed and Martussian was knocked unconscious.

The wreckage, far down the gully, could not be seen by cars passing on the road above and the dead and injured teen-agers might not have been found for days. They were in danger of spending the night untended in the bitter mountain cold, Elvira said.

But Aladadyan, who had been in the middle of the back seat, crawled out of the car despite her broken pelvis, and began to climb the steep embankment, Elvira said.

It took her almost four hours of pulling herself upward to reach the road, Elvira said. There, she managed to flag down a motorist, who notified forest rangers about 2:20 p.m.

Helicopters flew Aladadyan to Huntington Memorial Hospital, and Martussian and Guluzian to County-USC, where Guluzian spent her 15th birthday Tuesday in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Martussian had not regained consciousness by late Tuesday afternoon.

Elvira said investigators found another student’s backpack in the wreckage, prompting fears that there was another body somewhere on the mountainside, but later determined the sixth student had backed out of the expedition at the last minute.

At Crescent Valley High, students were still trying to come to terms with the sudden tragedy, shocked to confront their mortality. “Everyone’s afraid that they could die right now, while going home,” Roobina Babakhanian said.

Students and teachers remembered the group as a lively and energetic bunch.

“I’ve oftentimes referred to my class as trying to control 100 Ping-Pong balls at the same time,” said Lt. Col. Ray Beverly, ROTC instructor to Gevorkyan and Cholakian. “David and Steve bounced a little higher than most.”

“They were fun people to hang out with,” said James Van Meter, 15, a sophomore who was in both boys’ ROTC classes. “They were both guys I could always depend on.”