Friends Grieve for Teen-Agers at Site of Crash : Hawthorne: Officers continue to investigate the cause of Friday’s accident, in which four youths were killed and two were injured.

They drifted by the spontaneous shrine, pausing to place flowers, to light a candle or to leave a final message. It was a time to remember lost friends and to share the sorrow of their families.

More than 100 students, friends and neighbors attended a vigil Tuesday night at the scene of a fatal car crash in Hawthorne that left four teen-agers dead and two injured, one critically. Three of the four killed Friday were sophomores at Hawthorne High School.

“I just saw them in the morning, and when I found out in the afternoon they were gone, it was just a shock,” said Vivian Garcia, 16, a sophomore at Hawthorne High. “I still can’t believe it.”

Yeni Martinez, 15; Sonia Gonzalez, 16; Teresa Guillen, 16, and Michael Scott Wade, 19, died when the 1970 Volkswagen in which they were riding slammed into a power pole.

Carlos Martinez, 19, the driver, was in serious condition but improving Wednesday at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance.

Martinez, Yeni’s brother, was driving north on Inglewood Avenue when he swerved to avoid hitting a car backing out of a driveway. He apparently lost control of the car and slammed sideways into a power pole on Inglewood Avenue and 118th Street, Hawthorne Police Sgt. Stephen Baker said.

Another passenger, Claudia Vazquez, 15, was thrown from the car and bounced off a chain-link fence. She suffered a cut to her face but no other injuries.

Most remembered the three girls who died as friends who loved to laugh and hang out together.

Yeni was outgoing and friendly, someone the other girls looked up to, friends said. She dreamed about becoming a model. Teresa, shy and sweet, loved children and spoke with a cousin about being a pediatrician. Sonia, 16, smart, funny and a good student, had wanted to be an archeologist. Wade was remembered as good-hearted and a close friend of Yeni’s brother.

For many of the young people, the accident was a tragic reminder of their mortality.

“You see someone one minute and then they’re gone,” said Karen Garcia, 16, also a sophomore. “I feel I should be closer to my friends. Time is short, so you don’t want to lose it.”

As family and friends mourned, Hawthorne police and the California Highway Patrol this week continued an investigation into the crash.

*

Officers are looking into the speed of the vehicle and whether the driver, Martinez, was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Baker said. If officers believe Martinez was at fault, he could be charged with vehicular manslaughter, Baker said. The police investigation is expected to take two to three weeks.

The impact of the car against the pole was so great that the car’s engine was thrown out, Baker noted.

“The rear engine was totally ripped out of the car and (lying) on the sidewalk,” Baker said.

Crisis counselors at Hawthorne High School were ready Monday morning to help students work through their grief, Principal John Carter said. By that afternoon, 85 students, most of them sophomores, had seen the counselors.

Teresa had been looking forward to visiting relatives in Mexico this summer and was collecting gifts to take, said her sister, Veronica, 14.

Veronica described her sister and Yeni Martinez as inseparable.

“Yeni and Teresa were best, close friends,” she said. “They used to say, ‘Nobody is going to separate us.’ ”

Wade’s mother, Nikki, said she is devastated by the news of her son’s death and wants people to know her son was a good kid who didn’t drink or do drugs, and who even persuaded his mother to stop smoking.

“He was my one and only,” she said. “God isn’t going to give me any more.”

Services for Yeni, Sonia and Teresa will be held together. The viewing for the three girls was scheduled for today between 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. at McCormick Mortuary at 635 S. Prairie Ave. A rosary service was to follow at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at 119th Street and Acacia Avenue. Funeral services for the girls will be at St. Joseph’s at 10:30 a.m. Friday, followed by a procession to Holy Cross Cemetery.

Funeral services for Wade had yet to be scheduled.

A fund for the families of the victims has been set up at the high school. Donations should be made to Hawthorne High School Accident Fund. Students also plan a carwash to raise money for the families from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Hawthorne High School.