When tragedy strikes, as it did in Hau'ula in the early-morning and late-evening hours of Aug. 19, a news organization is obligated to tell the story, difficult as it might be.

Reporters dislike these assignments because to get at the details, they have to talk to grieving friends and relatives, intruding at the worst time possible. When it involves the lost lives of four teenagers, as it did in this case, the job is even harder.

But getting information is their job, and after it is gathered, editors have to decide how much coverage is warranted, what details are germane to the story and where the stories should be placed.

Early Saturday, Aug. 19, we knew that two teenagers had been killed and three hurt when their car hit a utility pole at 4:30 a.m. A witness said it sounded like the car was going over 100 mph. Those facts alone warranted Page One treatment for the story, but less than 24 hours later, at 11 p.m., the unthinkable occurred: A second speeding car hit a group of teenagers mourning their friends at exactly the same spot.

The freak nature of two accidents at the same location 19 hours apart that left four dead (three were known to have died by our 11:15 p.m. deadline) and several others injured made the story that much bigger, and the Sunday paper carried the tragedy at the top of Page One.

All day Sunday, reporters were out at the accident scene and at the homes of the victims, searching for answers. They collected photos of Summer-Lynn Mau, 19, Benson Orem Kauvaka and Alithia Ah Nee, both 16, and Pepe Naupoto, 15. Their young faces shown prominently in Monday's paper, coupled with snippets of their lives culled from relatives and friends, conveyed a tremendous sense of loss.

In many similar cases, relatives do not wish to talk to the press, and that is understandable. Some people choose to grieve privately and some publicly. If we are doing our jobs sensitively, we hope we can leave the best impression possible under the circumstances. If we are not sensitive, then we feed a public perception that we care nothing about the victims and everything about getting the story.

While reporters were charged with getting details about the car accidents, they also were asked to find out everything they could about the young victims.

After such senseless deaths, it is important to remember something good about their lives. That is why we visited the memorial site on that Sunday, why we spoke to relatives, and why we gave our readers the best sense of who these teenagers were.

In the following days, two other stories appeared on the front page.

One contained reflections by Kahuku High & Intermediate students about the four teens, three of whom had attended the school. The second revealed that Naupoto, the 15-year-old driver in the first accident, was legally drunk and did not have a driver's license. The mother of the car's 16-year-old owner said Naupoto did not have permission to drive her son's automobile. She didn't classify it as stolen and downplayed it as a joyride.

After that story, about a half-dozen letters arrived at The Advertiser with the same basic questions: While the accidents were understandably heartbreaking, what were the kids in the first car doing out so early in the morning, especially with a drunk driver, without permission to use the car?

Where were the parents?

The editors who run the editorial page chose not to run the letters, not because the authors didn't make valid points but because running them so soon after the accident would be insensitive to the grieving families.

We did run a brief item in the sports section about a moment of silence at the Kahuku-Kailua football game for the victims, and then a touching story last Sunday on the front of the Hawai'i page about Ah Nee's funeral, which drew about 450 mourners.

The funeral story and photos gave a fuller portrait of Ah Nee's life and described how some of those injured in the accident came to pay their respects.

It also showed how the small and close-knit community of Hau'ula was shaken. Another story yesterday focused on a memorial at the school.

Stories like these never end after the accident. There are more funerals and memorial services to cover, more details that emerge, and in the case of these two accidents, police investigations to follow. For the families, the heartbreak remains forever.

For The Advertiser, the mission is to tell the stories completely and compassionately and to remember that those who died also had so many reasons to live.