Ann Piamonte brought a handmade cross to the site where a crash killed two teenagers and she fought back tears, both for the victims and for what might have been.

"My son might have been in that car," said Piamonte, whose son Justin, 16, was close friends with one of the victims. "His angel was smiling on him."

An 18-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy were killed when the car in which they were riding sailed off the dead end of Franklin Roosevelt Avenue in Kalaeloa, flew over a canal and slammed into an embankment. Two other teenagers in the vehicle, including the driver, were injured.

The city medical examiner's office yesterday identified the dead boy as Leslie C. Kim, who would have been a junior at Kapolei High School this year.

The boy's father, Lester Kim, declined to comment at the crash site yesterday. A family friend, attorney Derek Nakamura, who was with the elder Kim, said the Kims did not wish to answer questions at this time.

The name of the 18-year-old victim was not released because a positive identification had not been established.

However, several friends who had been with the four teens earlier Monday evening identified her as Tanya House of Makakilo. Last year, she graduated from Kapolei High, where she played the flute in the school marching band, according to the school yearbook.

Police said the 19-year-old driver was taken to The Queen's Medical Center, where he was in serious condition, but stable. Police did not release his name. A third passenger, Kim's 14-year-old brother, was in serious condition at Queen's.

Yesterday, Piamonte described Leslie Kim as a happy-go-lucky guy who was a joy to be around and who will be greatly missed.

Justin Piamonte said he did not ride with his friends in the Nissan because he had spoken to his mother, who told him she wanted him to come home. The group had been hanging out together at Kapolei and Kalaeloa.

After Justin arrived home, around 10:30 p.m., he got a cell phone call from Kim's younger brother, Ronald, saying the teens had just been in a crash and needed help. The younger Kim had been riding in the back seat of the Nissan.

"He never calls, so when he did I knew it must be bad," said Justin Piamonte, who then left his house with his mom to try to find his friends.

'WE NEED HELP'

Around that same time, Darren Parker, 45, a painter who lives in his car near the scene, said he spotted lights in the culvert at the end of Roosevelt Avenue and thought, "Whoa, that's not right," and investigated.

"There were two people down there talking and I said, 'Are you all right?' and they said, 'Yeah, but we need help.'"

Parker called 911 on his cell phone. He said police and rescue vehicles arrived soon afterward.

When Piamonte saw Parker yesterday, she gave him a hug and thanked him.

"You saved two lives," she told him, but Parker insisted he only did what anyone would have done.

There were no skid marks leading to where the Nissan left the pavement. However, there were the mangled remains of a chain link gate that had been recently shut and locked at the end of the road, according to Parker.

Parker and others said they thought a vehicle had gone through the fence a little over a week ago and it had been down ever since.

However, Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesman, said the gate wasn't knocked down by a vehicle.

"Someone intentionally pulled it down," said Ishikawa, who said that was the conclusion of DOT workers who had inspected the gate on Monday, only hours before the fatal accident.

"It blocks off access to a dirt road which some people were using as an access to get to Kalaeloa Boulevard ... and it seems like people want to use that as a short cut."

FRIENDS GRIEVE

Today or tomorrow, Ishikawa said, DOT workers would either put concrete barriers at the end of Roosevelt Road or repair the chain link gate.

Friends of Leslie Kim set up a memorial for him on MySpace, the online Web journal. Pictures were posted and messages like "Leslie Kim R.I.P." were written on profiles.

Sierra Little, a 17-year-old Kapolei senior, hung out with Leslie Kim almost every day in her front yard. Little moved to Hawai'i from San Antonio more than a year ago and immediately became friends with Kim.

"It sucks when someone so close dies really young," said Little. "He was like my little brother. Every day after school and on weekends we'd come cruise at my house. He just lived life, every moment he was always laughing and always having fun, and he didn't try and take anything too serious."

Kapolei High School principal Alvin Nagasako met with school counselors to discuss ways to help students deal with the trauma of losing classmates.

"We'll be coming up with a plan that will offer some services to our kids who were affected by this unfortunate incident," Nagasako said.

Darren Parker was the first person to come upon the scene and called 911.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.