Mourners watched silently as Nathan Buzynski knelt at the side of the road, planted a cross and wrote a final farewell message on it near the spot where his girlfriend died early Thursday.
Two dozen friends and relatives gathered silently before sunset at the site of the accident on Turkey Lane in Buxton that killed Angel Greene, a sophomore at Bonny Eagle High School.
Greene, 16, was ejected from a white SUV when it left the road just after 1:30 a.m., striking a tree and a utility pole before rolling over and landing on its roof in a patch of grass. Greene’s body was found about 20 yards away. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
“She was always really happy,” Buzynski said. “I love her and I will miss her a lot.”
Christa Greene, Angel’s mother, said police told her that they believe alcohol and speed were factors in the crash, which injured three other teenagers.
In a statement issued late Thursday, Buxton police said a 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl also were in the car, as was 19-year-old Zakary Pacillo. All three were taken to the hospital with “significant injuries,” police said. Their conditions weren’t available Thursday night.
Police haven’t said who was behind the wheel, though a woman who lives near the crash site said a passenger in the SUV told her that Angel Greene was driving.
Neighbors have complained for years about speeding on Turkey Lane, where the posted limit is 45 mph and two people have died in accidents in the same area in recent years.
Dana Deering, who lives nearby and was a town selectman in the 1990s, said the town tried to quell speeding on the road, but residents complained and the current limit was reinstated.
“We dropped the speed limit down to 35 mph,” Deering said. “I guess people said it was too slow.”
As Deering spoke, a black sports car whizzed by the accident scene traveling about 60 mph. A neighbor, who declined to be identified, hollered at the driver to slow down.
“How many more kids have to die on this road?” the man asked.
Christa Greene was caught completely off guard when police came to her home early Thursday with news that her daughter had died in a car crash.
“I said, ‘You’re talking about the wrong person because my daughter is in her room,’” Greene said.
She didn’t know that her daughter had gone out, likely sometime after midnight.
“I went into the bedroom and she wasn’t there,” Greene said.
At the scene Thursday morning, there was little evidence remaining of the crash, but a retired couple who live feet from where the vehicle came to rest had watched emergency crews tend to the victims.
The husband, Dick Arsenault, described the vehicle as a small white SUV. He said the driver apparently lost control when the vehicle came over a crest in the road.
Arsenault said that he watched emergency workers remove people from the vehicle, and that they didn’t find Angel Greene’s body near the Arsenaults’ home until more than an hour later.
“She died in our dooryard,” Elaine Arsenault said.
Stephanie Christiana, who lives across the street, said a boy in his teens came to her door covered in blood and asking for help. She took him in and called 911. She said he told her that Angel had been driving the SUV.
Christiana’s boyfriend, Ben Dixon, went to the crash site and found a boy and a girl trapped in the wreckage in the rear seat. They were screaming “where is Angel?” Christiana said, and told Dixon she had been driving.
The Arsenaults said there have been several fatal crashes on Turkey Lane within a half-mile of their home in recent years. Speeding has long been a problem, they said.
“We’ve lived here 43 years and it’s always been bad,” Elaine Arsenault said. “We’ve called the police department, we’ve called the town.”
Turkey Lane is a two-lane road without a paved shoulder. It has numerous dips and rises on which young drivers sometimes attempt to get airborne, Elaine Arsenault said.
Thursday morning, Frank Sherburne, superintendent of the school district, confirmed that two of the injured people were students.
“As you can imagine, our thoughts and concerns are for the students and their families,” he said in a statement.
Staff Writer Dennis Hoey contributed to this report.
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