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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Blogs Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Road Cams Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend February 7, 2007 Click image for larger view Travis Black, 13, left and Jonathan Puryea, 15, talk about their friends who died early Tuesday morning. They said Corey Keller and Zachary Roberts, both of Talent, were always willing to teach fellow skaters at the Talent skatepark a new move. (Mail Tribune / Jim Craven) Teens' trip 'turned into a disaster' Tragic midnight car wreck on snowboarding adventure kills two Talent teenagers By Anita Burke Mail Tribune Planned for months, it was going to be the trip of a lifetime — four teenage friends driving through the night from Talent to Jackson Hole, Wyo., to hit the slopes on snowboards. But a midnight rollover Tuesday on a rural highway left two of them dead and the other two hospitalized in Burns. Corey Michael Keller, 17, and Zachary Roberts Fo (who used Roberts as his last name), 18, both of Talent, died at the scene of the crash on U.S. Highway 395 about 40 miles south of the junction with Highway 20, Oregon State Police said. Kameron Glover Pendleton, 18, of Medford, and Armando Manuel "Mannie" Serrano, 18, of Talent, are recovering at Harney District Hospital in Burns. "It turned into a disaster," Serrano said. Advertisement The group, who skated at the Talent skatepark together and had all attended Phoenix High School, left the Rogue Valley Monday evening in Pendleton's 2005 Ford F-150 pickup to visit a friend who was a lift operator at a Wyoming ski resort. Roberts, Pendleton and the friend they were headed to see all had graduated in 2006. Serrano is a senior, and Keller had attended the school in the past. "They were going to have the time of their life and instead it was the end of their life," said Dustin Wiltrout, 17, a junior at Phoenix High School who had planned to go on the trip, then decided he couldn't miss school. They planned to take turns driving and resting so they could travel through the night, Pendleton said by phone from a Burns hospital room. He was driving "out in the middle of nowhere on 395" when a cow loomed in his headlights and he swerved. Recovering from a concussion and a punctured lung, he said he doesn't remember many details of the accident. Oregon State Police reported that he lost control while driving north on bare pavement at about 12:15 a.m. Tuesday. The truck rolled several times and came to rest about 40 yards off the west side of the highway. Serrano recalled Pendleton swerving right to avoid a brown cow in the road. They had seen cows beside the road, but didn't realize they were in open range, he said. The pickup's tires caught the edge of the pavement and Pendleton overcorrected, Serrano said. The truck rolled "about seven times, on the road and then off," he said. He threw his arms up to protect himself as the vehicle tumbled. When the truck came to rest on its passenger side, he looked around. The rear seat, where Roberts and Keller had been sitting without seat belts, was empty, but Pendleton was still behind the wheel, complaining of an aching head. A cut on his own head bleeding and his body feeling battered, Serrano clambered out to look for his friends and found Roberts near the road and Keller beside the truck. "I yelled 'I don't think they are OK,' and Kameron got out," he said. Unable to hear their friends' breathing, they started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he said. Rummaging in Roberts' pockets, Serrano found a cell phone, but it was cracked. Still, he could get a signal and called 9-1-1, telling the operator of the crash before the phone went dead. He tried more CPR, then went to hunt for his phone. He found it in bushes at the side of the road and called 9-1-1 again, but using maps printed from Mapquest and stowed in the glove compartment, he could only give a general location between Lakeview and Burns. Emergency crews were dispatched from both towns to search for the crash and arrived about 45 minutes later, he estimated. He and Pendleton kept up CPR and talked to their friends during the wait. OSP reported that Lake County Sheriff's Office, Oregon Department of Transportation and Harney Emergency Medical Service all responded along with state police. Troopers from the Burns office and an OSP crash reconstructionist from Ontario are investigating to determine speed and seat-belt usage, among other factors, police reported. The Lake and Harney county district attorney offices are assisting. Word of the fatal crash spread quickly among the teens' friends in Phoenix and Talent. "They were outgoing and loved everybody," Wiltrout said. "Zach was the coolest kid you could meet. He would hang out with anybody." Keller was something of an outsider who had struggled with school and family problems, but he eventually found a close group of friends, students said. "We kind of all formed one another," said Mike Kennedy, 19, who is attending night school at Phoenix High to get his diploma after dropping out earlier. "They were my two best friends in the world." He said they taught him to skate and each had a style all his own. "It was kind of a snowboard style, with lots of big air," he said. At the Talent skatepark, Travis Black, 13, said he and Roberts were sponsored by Jack's Board Shop and gave skating exhibitions together. He said both Roberts and Keller were always willing to teach fellow skaters a new move. "They weren't here to show off like a lot of people here," Travis said. "They just loved the fun of skating." Wiltrout said skaters had gathered at the park Tuesday, "shredded around and talked about it." They are considering asking the city to let them add some memorial feature to the park Roberts and Keller loved, Wiltrout and Kennedy said. Students and school officials will meet today to plan a memorial at Phoenix High. The crash and the deaths were announced Tuesday morning at the school, followed by a moment of silence, Principal Jani Hale said. An informal memorial with poetry readings and a chance to share memories was held at lunchtime in the school's auditorium, and students were invited to write notes on a papered memory wall near the school's main entrance, she said. A crisis counseling team of ministers, teachers and counselors was made available. Teachers and peer mentors are keeping an eye out for grieving teens in hallways, Hale said. Share memories or leave condolences in guest books for Zach Roberts and Corey Keller . Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] . Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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