THE SCENARIO has played out again: A late night, a curvy country road, a teen driver--and now two young people are dead, four are injured, and hearts are left to bear the unbearable.

Stafford County residents Stephanie Parnell, 15, and Vincent Anthony Anguiano-Ayala, 23, both died early Saturday morning when the car in which they were riding ran off State Route 610 in North Stafford and struck a tree. The driver, 18-year-old Alex Christopher Hablas also of Stafford, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter and other charges. Police say speed was a factor.

Friends say the young people had just left a gathering in Lake Arrowhead. Even those of us whose teen years are well past can remember the high spirits of those days, the tendency to push the limits, and the fun (and distractions) of friends. Those are some of the reasons the per-mile fatality rate for 16- to 19-year-olds is four times that of adults.

All that remains at the crash site is a scarred tree and groups of young people making pilgrimage to a place where the notion of their invincibility met an immovable object. The best memorial to Stephanie and Vincent, then, may be to ease up on the accelerator, especially late at night on curvy country roads.