A teen was supposed to be picked up in a car that crashed Monday killing all five passengers.
Tamer Mosallam, 17, had planned to go along with his five friends on Memorial Day but his father did not let him go. The teens drove off without him and later on that day, the car crashed into a tree and exploded on impact.
"I was supposed to be with them in the car, that's why there were three girls," Mosallam said, according to AP. He was the third boy who had planned a double date with one of the girls that died. "They came to my house but my dad wouldn't let me go out because I was studying for a test."
It is not known what exactly caused the driver of the car, 17-year-old Abdulrahman Alyahyan, to veer off the six-lane street, but police say that speed was a factor. The nature of the crash was so severe that the vehicle had split in two and firefighters initially thought that there were two vehicles involved in the crash. Three of the deceased passengers were reportedly flung from the car.
All five victims in the car accident attended Irving High School.
Other passengers of the car were sisters Robin and Aurora Cabrera, Cecilia Zamora and Nozad Al Hamawendi.
Irvine Unified School District Superintendent Terry Walker released a statement regarding the tragic accident involving its students. "There are simply no words to convey the sorrow felt by our students and staff, nor are there sufficient answers to explain the loss of five vibrant teenagers from our schools and this community."
According to friends of the car crash victims, the five were headed to the beach before the fatal crash.
Alyahyan, the driver of the car, was reportedly obsessed with his Infiniti sedan and spent hours working on it.
