Students mourn loss of peers after weekend crash kills 3

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (WSVN) -- The site where a car carrying four high school students plunged into a canal is now marked with somber mementos.

One student managed to get out of the car alive, but the other three would not after what began as a mere fender bender escalated into a deadly accident early Sunday morning, off of University Drive and Broken Woods Drive.

The group of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School sophomores were out celebrating their high school homecoming. Now funeral arrangements are being made for some of the young victims.

Meanwhile, students wore black as they arrived to school the Monday after the weekend crash and even visited the crash scene. Today should have been a day of testing, but that standardized test has since been postponed, as grief counselors instead visited the school for those who needed them. "It's a horrible thing to die young," said Jared Sariol, a friend of the victims, "and they're going to be missed."

"I felt bad for their families, and I was kind of sad because I've seen them around school before," said a classmate, Brian Darvy, "so I know they're familiar, so I wore black today for them."

Sean Maxey, 16, the driver, had only recently earned his driver's license and got his new 2007 red Volkswagen, which wound up at the bottom of a canal after crashing through a guardrail. All wore seat belts, but it hardly helped them once that car slipped under the water, landing on its roof.

Maxey would die at the scene, along with Robert Nugent and Anthony Almonte, both also 16. Evan Sinisgalli, 15, the only survivor, found the strength to drag himself to shore. He was able to call for help, and rescuers took them all to Coral Springs Medical Center, where doctors would later pronounce the other three dead. Sinisgalli has since been released from the hospital.

Police said Maxey hit a silver Acura before the crash turned deadly. "All we do know now is that he did hit a car, and he did put the vehicle in reverse, ultimately resulting in flipping the car over here in the canal," explained Coral Springs Police Sgt. Joe McHugh. "Maybe he panicked or maybe he was actually trying to flee the scene."

Naomi Concepcion, the mother of Nugent, said, "He's a wonderful kid, wonderful, never been in any trouble." However, she said, her son kept a secret from her. According to Concepcion, her son had told her he was sleeping at another friend's house. When she called that friend's mother to check on him, Concepcion said the mother on the other end of the phone said she had thought her son was sleeping at her house.

Police learned the group had been partying before they hit the road. "They were attending a party located in the Broken Woods community," said McHugh, at the crash scene that Sunday morning. "What the party was for, we have no idea. Obviously it's still early in our investigation. We will draw blood and determine whether alcohol did play a part in the accident."

It will take several weeks before the toxicology reports come back to determine if drugs or alcohol indeed played a role in the accident.

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