Friends gather to remember crash victim

Fewer than 24 hours after her death, they recalled her enthusiasm, her sense of humor, her kindness and her young life.

On Tuesday night, 17-year-old Rachel Kolegue, a junior at Gulf Coast High School, died in a one-car crash in North Naples.

She was a passenger in a car that veered off U.S. 41 north at Pelican Bay Boulevard North, went airborne about 6 feet in the air and slammed into a palm tree, authorities say.

The driver, Danielle Meyers, 17, who was in Kolegue's class at school, was hospitalized with a head injury, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The crash is still under investigation, but witnesses said the 1999 Honda Prelude the girls were in was speeding before it slid off the road and landed in the trees in the median behind the Pelican Bay sign.

"She had an infectious kind of enthusiasm," said Robert Hamberg, the band director at Gulf Coast High. Kolegue played the trumpet in the band.

He said most of the kids at the remembrance Wednesday night were members of the band. Since school was closed Wednesday, many of her fellow band members didn't know about her death. Those who had heard met earlier Wednesday and talked about what they wanted to do and set up the remembrance near the crash scene.

"So many of them left for the holiday," Hamberg said. "They won't find out until Monday. They're like one big family."

The wreck happened just before 10 p.m. as Meyers was driving south on U.S. 41 North. She was just south of Vanderbilt Beach Road when she drifted first into the middle lane, over-corrected the car and crossed into the right turn lane, troopers say.

Authorities say the car sheared off the top of a palm tree and crushed the passenger side.

Both girls were trapped in the Honda and North Naples firefighters were able to free Meyers. Kolegue was dead at the scene.

Teachers described the honor student who played junior varsity softball and marched in the band as a bright, vivacious teen who liked to help her peers, Gulf Coast High Principal Eric Williams said.

Sue Herting, an advanced placement history teacher, remembered her as a funny, witty and caring person.

Williams said guidance counselors and a school psychologist would be available to help students when they return from the holiday.

"There will be a moment of silence," he said.

A memorial for Kolegue will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Gulf Coast High.

On Wednesday night, the teen's friends, who shared hugs and tears together, planted a cross and some flowers and bows in her favorite color -- purple -- to remember her.

Staff Writer Ray Parker contributed to this report.