Death came too fast for Cambria County 16-year-olds Tiana Rose and Nicholas Maniccia on Saturday afternoon.

Tiana, who'd had her driver's license for two weeks, was driving her 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier too fast on winding, hilly Route 4002 in Blacklick, also called "Snake Road," state police said. She lost control on a curve and her car hit an embankment, crossed the highway, flipped and hit a tree about 10 feet above the ground.

Tiana, of Nanty Glo, and Nicholas, of Twin Rocks, who had been riding in the back seat, were pronounced dead at the scene. Two 16-year-old friends, Brook Litzinger of Nanty Glo and Jeremy Turous of Vintondale, were thrown from the car and injured. None of the teens was wearing a seat belt.

It was the kind of tragedy that could have happened to almost anyone who has ever been a teenager, according to Nicholas' aunt, Lynn Smith.

"You know how kids go out on joy rides -- all of us were 16 years old and going on joy rides out on back roads," said Ms. Smith. "For us, it didn't happen, but for this group, it did."

The speed limit on the road is 55 mph, according to Trooper James Williams, who investigated the accident. Brook, who'd been riding in the front seat, said her friend was driving at about 60 mph, he said.

Brook, who was thrown through the windshield and into some large trees about 150 feet away, broke her ankle but remained conscious. After the accident, she crawled out from the woods and over to Jeremy, then used his cell phone to call 911. He was life-flighted to Altoona Hospital for a broken leg and arm.

Most of the time, Ms. Smith said, cell phones can't get a signal in that remote area; that Jeremy's phone worked that time might have saved his life.

"On these rural roads, you could wait for hours and nobody goes by," she said.

After news of the accident reached Nanty Glo, the little mining town where many of the victims' friends live, teenagers began to gather in little knots around town.

Blacklick Valley School District administrators are offering counseling when students at the small, close-knit junior-senior high school return to classes tomorrow morning.