HAU'ULA — Following two deadly car wrecks at the same spot in one day, mourners at a roadside memorial yesterday tried to deal with the community's loss of four teenagers.

The victims' families grieved at home.

Photographs of 16-year-old Alithia Ah Nee, who was killed along with 15-year-old Pepe Naupoto early Saturday morning, lined a telephone pole in front of a construction site near the Kokololio Bridge in Hau'ula where the teens died. Naupoto was driving a car that police said had been reported stolen.

A few feet away, another utility pole was covered in tapa cloth, ribbon and blue flowers. The pole was splintered and the tapa cloth wrapped around it was torn. Blue flowers from a basket were strewn along the ground and a ripped athletic sneaker lay close by, all evidence of the second crash about 19 hours later that killed Benson Orem Kauvaka, 16, and Summer-Lynn Mau, 19.

Kauvaka and Mau were among about a dozen people paying their respects to the teens who died earlier that morning when a speeding car plowed into them, police said.

THREE WERE NEIGHBORS

Three of the teens who died Saturday were neighbors living within a few blocks of each other in a subdivision across the street from Kahuku Elementary School.

As families grieved yesterday, relatives and friends dropped by to offer condolences.

At the Mau home a tarp was spread over the front lawn and two large coolers sat on a table. A dozen or so relatives and friends milled around, exchanging condolences on the sunny, breezy day.

"She was like a beam of light," said Summer's father Ross Mau. "I don't recall ever hearing anything bad about her."

Summer was a big girl, even at birth. She weighed "747" (7 pounds 4.7 ounces), her mother, Shelly Mau, said with a smile. "I joked she would be built like a 747 (airliner)."

But she also had a big heart, giving her parents half of her paycheck from the Polynesian Cultural Center where she worked as an ambassador hostess.

Summer had finished work about 8:30 Saturday night — and normally her mother would pick her up, but a cousin volunteered. The cousin stopped by the house to pick up Summer's brother and sister but their mother said she didn't know they were all heading to the scene of the first accident.

The children told their parents they were sitting around a utility pole next to the highway later that night at the makeshift memorial, Shelly Mau said. They heard screeching tires and scrambled to get away.

Shelly Mau's son, Mana, 15, also was hit, she said. He was treated at Kahuku Hospital and released; daughter Brittany, 17, escaped uninjured. The boyfriend of the Maus' niece, T.J. Latusela, suffered a broken leg, Shelly Mau said.

The 21-year-old woman who was driving the car in the second accident remained at The Queen's Medical Center yesterday in serious condition. Speed was a factor, said Honolulu Police Department Capt. Frank Fujii.

After Shelly Mau and her husband received a call about the accident, they rushed to the scene and saw medical personnel working to revive their daughter, she said.

She remembered yelling at the kids, asking them why they were sitting around the pole that was so close to the road and calling to her daughter to use her big heart to fight the injuries.

"I just called out how much I loved her," Shelly Mau said. But the injuries were too great, she said. "She couldn't fight it any more."

VISITING FROM MAINLAND

Ah Nee, a former Kahuku High School student who had moved to Utah to live with relatives and attend school there, and Naupoto, a visitor from Texas, died when their speeding car ran off Kamehameha Highway and hit a utility pole at 4:20 a.m. Saturday. Three other teens in the car were hurt, EMS personnel said. Their status yesterday was not clear.

A group of teens, who were friends of the victims, visited the crash site yesterday. As the girls left the site, each stopped to kiss a photograph of Alithia Ah Nee on the utility pole.

Messages were written on the photograph. "Watch over us now," read one. "Always beautiful," read another.

Other people visited the scene.

"These were people I knew and grew up with. It's pretty shocking," said 19-year-old Zynfia Sakulsinghdusit, who was friends with Summer-Lynn Mau.

"I think it's really sad. She was just paying her respects," she said. "(Mau) was a very positive person, very into school spirit, very funny. I loved her."

Fifteen-year-old Abcde Enos and 22-year-old Ashlin Kepaa, friends of Mau, also stopped at the pole yesterday. The pair said they also knew the other victims.

"This is too tragic," Kepaa said. "They were just stopping to show some respect. How does this happen?"

As Enos was attempting to give an interview to a TV news reporter, she broke down in tears and was comforted by Kepaa.

"It'll be OK," she said.

Benson Kauvaka just wanted to show his respect for his good friend Pepe Naupoto the night he died, his family said.

Kauvaka was a sophomore at Kahuku High School where he struggled with his studies, but was well-liked by his peers, said his mother, Saane Kauvaka.

LOVED TO COOK

Her home was always filled with Benson's friends, who would often spend the night, she said.

"He cooked for his friends," Saane Kauvaka said. "He loved to cook because he loved to eat."

Saane Kauvaka greeted friends and family who dropped by yesterday morning in her carport. Her husband, Tevita Latu Kauvaka, and Benson's twin sister had taken a break from the emotions, she said.

Of her four children, Benson was the one by her side, she said. He would do whatever was asked of him, and he was a loving boy, she said. "He loves everyone and he teach me to love more," said Saane Kauvaka, weeping.

Benson and Naupoto were good friends. Saane Kauvaka said her home was like a second home to Naupoto. "I loved him, too," she said. "He's a nice boy, too, so quiet."

Emili Moala, Benson's uncle, said the boy had all kinds of dreams — he was looking forward to serving his mission with the Mormon Church and was working to complete his Eagle project for Boy Scouts. And he loved to work with his father in construction.

But now the dreams are gone and Benson's parents have lost a loving son, he said. Moala said he couldn't understand why the driver of the car was in such a rush that night, especially in an area where everyone knows there is ongoing construction.

"Now she will regret this for the rest of her life," he said.

BORN IN TONGA

Pepe Naupoto was born in Tonga and moved to Hawai'i seven years ago with his family, according to his aunt Olini Maile. The family stayed about six months, then moved to Texas to find work and better educational opportunities, Maile said. Pepe lost his father about three years ago to a heart problem, and he dropped out of school.

He was visiting his aunt and uncle here but had decided to return to Texas soon and go back to school, Maile said.

She thought he might have decided to visit Hawai'i because she had adopted Pepe's younger brother and Pepe wanted to visit him. He would take the boy to the store every time he got paid and would buy something for him.

"Pepe was a very nice person, quiet," she said. "He doesn't say much, but he worked hard. He would do anything we asked of him, very obedient."

However, she said, he had been caught drinking and had been punished for it. And she said he didn't have a driver's license.

When she was told that he had been in an automobile accident, she didn't believe it, Maile said.

The family had gone to the Kahuku-Punahou game on Friday and got home about 11:30 that night. Pepe was told to get some rest because he had to work with his uncle the next day, she said.

"When the news came I said, 'No he's in the garage' (where he slept); it couldn't be," she said.

Benson Kauvaka was the first person to come to her home after Pepe's death, Maile said. "He came to check if it was really Pepe."

DANGEROUS TURN

Several visitors to the crash site yesterday said they were concerned about the highway and its sharp turns.

But speeding makes any road dangerous, Fujii said.

"You can take the safest road but if people don't comply to rules, it becomes dangerous," Fujii said.

Shelly Mau said she is living with regret — regret for not picking up Summer-Lynn from work Saturday night and for not telling her every day that she loved her.

"You never think you're going to bury your own children," Shelly Mau said. "She's the only 19-year-old that still calls her mother mommy. I'm going to miss that."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com and Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.