Friends, family gather, mourn 2 killed in crash

SANFORD -- More than 50 friends, family members and neighbors of two Sanford teenagers killed in a car crash late Monday in Sanford gathered at the scene Tuesday evening for an emotional candlelight vigil. Many clutched photos, and several wept openly.

Driver Arnulfo Mario "Cheech" Gallegos, 18, 1801 Dorn Court, and front-seat passenger Abraham Roberts Lindsey, 18, 119 Fairlane Circle, both died about 11 p.m. when their 1988 Honda Civic drove off U.S. Highway 17-92 at Hiawatha Avenue, hitting first a fire hydrant and then a utility pole.

Police said Gallegos was racing another driver when the crash occurred. Cassandra Blauberg, 18, 1445 Oberlin Terrace, Lake Mary, was issued a citation for racing on a highway, a misdemeanor, after she showed up at the Sanford Police Department Tuesday afternoon, said police spokeswoman Cleo Cohen.

Blauberg, who was driving a black 1993 Mazda, told investigators she was not aware the other car had crashed and also denied that she was racing, Cohen said. However, witnesses and one of the occupants of Gallegos' car told officers the cars were racing, Cohen said.

Two back-seat passengers in the car that hit the pole were hurt, but their injuries were not life-threatening, Cohen said. They were identified as Brooke Brunelle, 17, 407 W. 19th St., Sanford, and Patrick Munoz, 17, 2204 Coronado Concourse, Sanford.

Power lines fell across the car, hampering efforts of rescue workers to reach the victims. The crash knocked out power in the area.

"They were really good people," Kennedy Weber, 18, of Sanford said of the two teens who died. "They were just having fun, being teenagers."

Gallegos' grandmother, Ruth Emerson of Deltona, called her grandson "a very nice boy."

"We all had lunch at his house yesterday," she said. "When he left I told him to drive safely. He said 'Don't worry, Grams, I'll be all right.' He always called me Grams."

One teen, identified as Gallegos' girlfriend, sat at the base of the utility pole that replaced the one hit, looking through photos and crying.

"This is him when he was 15; this is him when he just turned 18," she said to no one in particular. "My baby died right here."

Copyright (c) 2004, Orlando Sentinel | By Gary Taylor, Sentinel Staff Writer
 

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