Five Young Women Killed In Fiery Car Crash

A fiery head-on collision killed five women in a sport utility vehicle less than a week after they graduated from a high school in a Rochester suburb, the principal said Wednesday.

Their Chevrolet Trail Blazer had just passed a vehicle late Tuesday when it swerved back across the two-lane road into oncoming traffic and hit a tractor-trailer, the Ontario County Sheriff's Office said. Both vehicles caught fire.

The crash knocked down utility lines and cut phone service in the western half of Ontario County. The truck driver wasn't injured.

The victims were pronounced dead at the scene, deputies said.

Fairport High School Principal David Paddock said four of the women were members of the cheerleading squad — Bailey Goodman, Hannah Congdon, Meredith McClure and Sara Monnat — and he identified the fifth as Katie Shirley. All five graduated Thursday.

"It is with overwhelming sadness that I inform all of you that five of our children, all of whom just graduated from FHS last Thursday evening, lost their lives earlier tonight in a car accident," Paddock wrote in an e-mail sent to parents early Wednesday.

He said the victims had been heading to the Keuka Lake camp of a parent, and four friends were following in another car when the wreck occurred.

Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero said Bailey was driving the SUV.

Keisha Koneski, one of the cheerleading teammates who was following in the second car, told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that it appeared Bailey had tried to pass a van that was driving slowly in the right lane.

After almost passing the van, she said, it appeared Bailey may have thought the van was swerving into her lane and she jerked back into the left lane, running head-on into the tractor-trailer.

"We saw the truck and we all started screaming," she said.

The crash happened shortly after 10 p.m. along a 55-mph stretch just before the crest of a slight rise on a two-lane road in the rural town of East Bloomfield, a western Finger Lakes community about 20 miles southeast of Rochester.

The SUV landed on the side of the road and partially under the charred rig, which was being removed from the scene late Wednesday morning. A nearby maple tree was scorched by flames.

Sheriff Povero said it was clear that the fierceness of the impact caused various fuel lines to rupture, causing both vehicles to ignite.

"The fire trapped the five girls in the SUV. They were unable to escape," Lt. Bill Gallagher of the Ontario County Sheriff's Office told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. "Both vehicles were engulfed. There was no chance for rescue," he said.

Dozens of students, teachers and parents, some hugging and weeping, gathered Wednesday morning on a hillside overlooking the school, located in an Erie Canal village of about 6,000, about 10 miles southeast of Rochester.

Marcus Merriman, an 18-year-old student who knew all the victims, described Hannah Congdon as "probably my best friend."

"She always had a perfect smile on her face. She said 'hi' to everyone in the halls. She was very caring and sympathetic," he said.

"Our hearts just explode and it just makes the grieving so hard because we build such a community for youth," said Debra Tandoi, a town official who works with young people in the schools. "We love them all."