3 Sylmar High Grads Die in Apparent Drag Race

Three recent members of the Sylmar High School marching band were killed Tuesday night when their car, sometimes traveling at speeds approaching 100 mph, swerved to avoid traffic during an apparent drag race and flew 400 feet off the 210 Freeway into a drainage ditch below.

It was the second time in three days that freeway racing has left three young people dead, and the California Highway Patrol said both surviving drivers may be charged with second-degree murder. The CHP, however, added that the two accidents did not appear to signal any trend.

The most recent tragedy occurred on the eastbound 210 Freeway, just past the transition from the 118 Freeway in the northeastern San Fernando Valley. The 11 p.m. crash killed Sylmar High’s 1996 drum major and two former band members who had returned to the school almost daily since graduating to tutor the band’s musicians.

“These kids were absolute winners,” band director Raj Samaroo said.

The dead were identified as former honor students Michael Encinas and Pablo Rangel Jr., both 18, and Shannon Haupt, 20. Rangel, the 1996 drum major and driver of the blue Nissan Maxima, also played the trombone and was “an excellent musician and outstanding leader,” Samaroo said. Encinas played the bass drum, and Haupt, a 1995 graduate, played the cymbals.

On Sunday, three passengers were thrown from a 1989 Mustang and killed when the suspected drunk driver, allegedly racing with another motorist, lost control of the vehicle and crashed on a downtown freeway interchange.

In Sylmar on Thursday, tearful band members clustered together in the high school’s band room, talking to counselors and seeking solace in each other.

Friends and family members flocked to the crash scene; one held a cap that had belonged to Encinas. Speaking later at their homes, they described the three as “good kids” who had been best friends since junior high school.

Authorities said they do not believe drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash. But CHP Officer Doug Sweeney said because a speed contest apparently was involved, officers expect to file three counts of second-degree murder against the other driver, 21-year-old Kenneth Acosta, also of Sylmar. With him in his red Honda Prelude was his girlfriend. Neither were injured.

Acosta, a hemophiliac and diabetic, is being held at the Men’s Central Jail. He is devastated by the deaths of his friends, becoming tearful at the mention of their names during phone conversations with his family, his father said.

“I lost my three friends,” he keeps saying, recounted Dan Acosta.

Kenneth Acosta, an electrical engineering student at a technical school in Van Nuys, spent five days in the hospital last week with kidney problems, his father added. He had just gotten a new car.

“Three young lives were lost, and for him to be charged with murder is just too much,” Dan Acosta said. He criticized the high bail--$1 million--and worried that his son would not receive proper treatment for his medical conditions.

“This guy’s not Charles Manson. He’s not going anywhere. He’s still crying over his friends being gone,” the father said.

Acosta’s girlfriend and lone passenger, 20-year-old Kathleen Blauvelt, adamantly denied the drivers had been racing. She had been Haupt’s best friend.

She said after the friends had met for dinner at a restaurant in Northridge, Acosta had merely wanted to test his new car for performance. Rangel apparently decided on his own to give chase.

“We were not racing,” she insisted. “Yeah, Kenny went over the speed limit, but not to instigate a race. It’s not our fault that Pablo tried to chase him. That was his choice.”

She added that they had slowed after entering the 210 Freeway when she had watched, horrified, through the rear-view mirror as the Maxima veered out of control after trying to squeeze between two cars.

“I saw the car spin. I saw the headlights go back and forth. Then I saw sparks and they went over the side,” Blauvelt said.

The Maxima crashed through a guardrail, rolled on the shoulder of the road, smashed through a chain-link fence and flew over the embankment, plunging into the Pacoima Wash.

Acosta turned his car around and sped the wrong way on the freeway, back to the spot where his friends went over the side, Blauvelt said. Acosta ran down the embankment, screaming the names of his three friends. When she peered over the side, Blauvelt continued, she saw the bodies of her three friends around the Maxima, which had landed on its roof.

“I saw Shannon and I knew she was dead the minute I saw her,” Blauvelt said.

Rangel, the driver, and Haupt were hurtled through the windshield and into the air when the vehicle rolled, according to police and Blauvelt’s account. They were pronounced dead at the scene. Encinas, who was riding in the back seat, was ejected when a back door flew open. He died a short time later at Providence-Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. Authorities said they had been unable to determine whether any of the victims were wearing seat belts.

As the families of the dead youths grappled with their grief on Wednesday, they recalled three lives full of promise.

Encinas, who attended Cal State Northridge, had just been granted admission to UCLA; he had hoped to become a doctor. Rangel had enlisted in the Marines and was scheduled to report for boot camp Tuesday. Haupt was in a training program at Magic Mountain, learning how to operate the rides.

Richard Encinas said his son and Rangel were close, “like two peas in a pod,” and did everything together. He said he had chastised them about speeding and racing in the past.

“My son was one of those incredible kids,” he said.

Sara Encinas said her son was born premature and weighed less than 3 pounds at birth. “He was shy and quiet. He liked to listen to other people. He was a good son and he wanted to help other people,” she said.

The boys came to Haupt’s rescue in high school, when she was teased mercilessly by other students, said her father, Theale Haupt. “They became her protectors. They were Shannon’s rocks.”

He described his daughter as gregarious and social. “She was 20 going on 17,” he said. He added he holds no ill will toward Rangel.

“She died with her friends. I’m not happy they died, but if they had to go, that was the best way.”

Plans are pending for a joint funeral for Encinas and Rangel. Family members said they will be buried in their band uniforms.

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Fatal Freeway Crash

Three former Sylmar High School students were killed when the Nissan Maxima they were in swerved at high speed to avoid other cars. The driver of the Maxima lost control after possibly racing another car on the 118 Freeway. The accident occurred shortly after both cars entered the 210 Freeway.

1) Speeding vehicles turn onto transition road to the 210 Freeway.

2) As cars enter traffic at high speed, driver of Nissan Maxima veers to the right to avoid traffic in No. 3 lane.

3) Maxima careens over the side of the freeway and into a wash below, landing on its roof. All three passengers are ejected from the car, two of whom are thrown 50 feet.

Source: Staff reports