Speed Blamed in Crash That Kills 2 O.C. Teens : Tragedy: Witnesses say car was traveling 100 m.p.h. down Fountain Valley street. Driver, 2 others are injured.

A carload of close-knit friends from Fountain Valley High School, speeding through a residential street Tuesday to take one of them to driving school, smashed into another car, hit a tree and skidded into a telephone pole, leaving two teen-agers dead and three people injured.

The four 16-year-olds had just been out for pizza when the Mustang swerved out of control and crashed on Ellis Avenue just before 1 p.m., killing both passengers in the back seat.

They were identified as Gregory Starr and Mike Mize. The Mustang’s driver, Brian Dale Tuseth, who got his driver’s license less than seven months ago, was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with moderate injuries. Lisa Nielsen, who was riding in the front seat, was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange with minor injuries.

Friends of the youths said Tuseth was speeding to get Mize to his driver’s education class on time to help him get his driver’s license.

The Mustang hit a Nissan Sentra, which was making a left turn from Ellis onto Linden Street. That driver, Adelle M. Park, 52, of Fountain Valley, suffered moderate injuries, a family member said. She also went to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

The four teens all lived in Fountain Valley and were going to be juniors in the fall at Fountain Valley High School, where they competed in athletics, school officials said.

“There’s going to be an upset campus here,” Assistant Principal Tom Antal said. “These are neat kids. It’s going to really be hard for the school.”

Antal described Starr and Mize as “outgoing and friendly students.”

“They were definitely contributors to the school, very much a part of the life of the school,” he said. “They will be missed.”

Police would only say that the Mustang’s “excessive speed” was the primary cause of the accident, but witnesses estimated the car was traveling at least 100 m.p.h. as it barreled down Ellis Avenue about a half-mile from the school they all attended.

Patty Briggs, 30, of Fountain Valley was waiting to turn right from Linden onto Ellis when she saw the accident.

“I looked left and I saw this car. I looked and thought to myself, ‘That car is going too fast.’ It seemed like they were going 100 miles an hour.”

Briggs was ready to turn at the same time but stopped to inspect a broken fingernail, a momentary delay she believes may have saved her life.

She saw the crash and dialed 911 from her car telephone while rushing to the woman’s aid. When she looked over at the Mustang wrapped around the telephone pole, she felt dread.

“I knew someone was dead,” she said. “There was no possibility that everyone could live through that.”

Briggs said she saw the Mustang skid across the median and sideswipe a tree before plowing into a telephone pole and a cinder-block wall behind it.

The impact of the crash sent mangled pieces of the car all over the street. A twisted license plate attached to a piece of the Mustang’s trunk lay 10 to 20 feet from the car. The car also left a gap in the wall about five feet wide.

“It all happened so fast,” Briggs said. “I blinked and it was over.”

Casey Park, 25, the son of Adelle Park, said his mother “feels really badly for the families of the kids who died. It’s tragic that anything like this had to happen. It’s tragic that lives had to be cut short.”

The accident was the second in 10 days involving high school students from Orange County. On July 30, four teen-agers from Katella High School in Anaheim were killed in a crash in the desert near Victorville. Authorities found more than 40 empty beer cans in the car.

At Western Medical Center on Tuesday, friends of the four Fountain Valley students huddled nervously in the lobby, waiting for news of their classmates. Several groups were ushered up to Tuseth’s room for brief visits, although they were forbidden from telling him anything about the conditions of the other passengers.

Mize and Starr were close friends and spent a lot of time this summer with Tuseth. All three lived in the same neighborhood, close to Fountain Valley High School, said Tuseth’s father, Robert D. Tuseth.

“Those boys are tight,” he said.

Friends and teachers at Fountain Valley High described Starr, 16, as an easygoing honors student who excelled at track. He tutored classmates in math and encouraged others to do their best.

“He was a really good friend,” said John Filakourdis, 16, who played on the sophomore basketball team and ran varsity track with Starr. “He always pushed hard.”

Filakourdis and coaches said Starr excelled at track and played guard on the basketball team. He was an average basketball player who served as an excellent role model for other kids because of his stellar academic record, varsity basketball coach Gordon Billingsley said.

Other teachers agreed.

“He was a very good student,” said Dave Penhall, who taught Starr honors English. “He was in the top 10% of the honors kids. He was real sharp, a real sharp kid.”

Mize ran on the junior varsity track team, and Filakourdis said he had improved considerably in his sophomore year.

Penhall described Mize as a quiet student who was well-liked by his classmates.

At the scene of the accident Tuesday, more than a dozen friends of the teen-agers arrived almost immediately, some in such a hurry that they were shoeless.

The fire-red Ford Mustang that Tuseth loved to show off was mangled in the street before them.

Joshua Genet, 15, who just completed his freshman year at Fountain Valley High School, said he had been in the car often.

“He took me home from school,” Genet said. “Sometimes we would just go out driving, and sometimes he would drive it around really fast.”

Genet and other friends said Tuseth liked to brag about the Mustang and how it handled at top speeds.

Tuseth and his girlfriend, Lisa Nielsen, who was in the front seat Tuesday, often drove around with friends in the Mustang, Genet said.

Drew Jennings, 19, who knew Tuseth through mutual friends, said the couple are “pretty popular in school.” They both play soccer and Tuseth also played football, sometimes as quarterback and sometimes as cornerback, Genet said. But a coach said Tuseth was not planning to play football this coming season.

Chris Auger, 17, who just completed his sophomore year, said Tuseth is “like any other teen-ager.”

“He likes to go to parties,” Auger said. “He likes sports and he likes to be with friends.”

On weekends, neighbors said, Tuseth and his father often were seen working on the car together. Earlier this year, neighbors noticed a crumpled fender, said Gene Norton, who lives next door. Department of Motor Vehicle records show that Tuseth, who got his license in January, has a clean driving record.

Norton said he also once saw Tuseth “squeal” out of a parking lot and that he sometimes played loud music, but nothing out of the ordinary for a teen-ager.

“We never had problems with his driving,” he said.

By Tuesday night, a large group of friends had gathered at the scene of the accident. Some hugged and cried as they greeted one another, and they placed flowers around the telephone pole the car had hit.

A poster was hung nearby that read: “In loving memory of Mike Mize and Greg Starr.”

Said Wendy King, 16: “You don’t expect to see your friends die. You expect to see your grandparents die, not your friends. I wish I could have said goodby.”

Times staff writer Lee Romney contributed to this report.

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Mike Mize

Age: 16

Hometown: Fountain Valley

School: Would have been a junior this fall at Fountain Valley High School

Academics: One teacher described him as a quiet and well-liked student.

Sports: Ran on the high school’s junior varsity cross-country team; one friend said the teen was proud of outrunning entire varsity squad during a practice session.

****

Gregory Starr

Age: 16

Hometown: Fountain Valley

School: Would have been a junior at Fountain Valley High School

Academics: Teachers and others described him as an honor student and team player who tutored his classmates in math.

Sports: Ran varsity track and played guard on the sophomore basketball team; like to play Hacky Sack.