MEDIA, Pa. (AP) -- At the Granite Run Mall parking lot, 17-year-old Amber Smith sat in her car, cigarette in hand, and shared photographs of herself and the friend she lost in a car accident.
"This one here was from when we were on vacation," Smith said. "And here's when she visited me in the hospital after I got stung by a bee."She was speaking Monday of Tracy Graham, 16, one of five girls who died in a one-car crash on a busy suburban Philadelphia highway Friday. Also killed were Rachel Lehr, 17; and Loren Wells, Becky Weirich and Shaena Grigaitis, all 16.
The girls died after the car Wells was driving swerved into oncoming traffic, hit a utility pole and slammed into a tree on a section of Route 1 known as "Dead Man's Curve." State police say the car likely was speeding.
Monday was the first day of classes at Penncrest High School in Delaware County, where the girls were juniors, since the accident. The school excused students who were grieving or who broke down during the day.
The school library and hallways were decorated with murals dedicated to the five girls, and their lockers were covered with notes of condolence.
"It's been anything but a normal day," said Laird Warner, superintendent of the Rose Tree-Media school district.
Monday afternoon, at the mall parking lot, a radio station sponsored an informal memorial service as the five girls' grieving friends huddled in clusters, crying, hugging and exchanging stories.
"Shaena was like our little sister, and Becky always cheered us up when we were down," Smith said.