Flowers And Memories -- Inseparable Couple's Big Dreams For Future Die In Mukilteo Crash

MUKILTEO - As their car careened out of control, Eric Lundgren wrapped his arms as tightly as he could around the young woman sitting on his lap in the back seat. "I love you," he said.

A moment later, the car smashed into a utility pole and overturned, instantly killing the 17-year-old driver, Evan Bentz, and fatally injuring Amanda Flanigan, 18. Five other teenagers crammed into the 1997 Volkswagen Jetta also were injured.

"He remembers crawling out of the car and the realization he didn't know where Amanda was," said Lundgren's father, Gregg Lundgren, who lives north of Edmonds. "He crawled back to see Amanda, and she was unconscious."

Lundgren, 18, then passed out, too. He'd suffered two broken vertebrae, a cracked rib and a punctured lung in the 3:40 a.m. Sunday accident on Chennault Beach Road in south Mukilteo. He was in

serious condition today at Providence General Medical Center in Everett.

The teenagers were on their way home from a high-school-graduation party, which police say was held without parental oversight at an apartment complex about a half-mile away. Bentz, whose parents gave him the midnight-blue car as a present for his Kamiak High graduation, apparently was intoxicated, police said.

"One of the boys in the car . . . told us he begged him not to drive, that he was too drunk to drive," Mukilteo Police Chief Mike Murphy said. The results of toxicology tests, routine after fatal crashes, are expected to be available in several weeks.

Neither Flanigan nor Lundgren graduated this spring; both had dropped out of Jackson High School near Mill Creek. They'd just moved into an apartment together in Lynnwood and planned to marry next year. He worked at Costco; she worked at a restaurant near Alderwood Mall.

They planned to take turns putting each other through college, starting with GEDs at Edmonds Community College.

Flanigan was about a month pregnant when she met Lundgren in April 1997, said her mother, Christine Flanigan. The baby's father was a popular boy at Jackson High whose interest in Flanigan had cooled.

Lundgren wasn't fazed by her pregnancy.

"When they started to see each other, they could communicate really deep," her mother said. "They said they were going to take it slow because they'd both been hurt. They were inseparable from that time on."

For her 17th birthday last year, Lundgren gave Flanigan a "promise ring" with a tiny diamond suspended within a gold heart. As the months went by, he gave her a new nickname, "Preggie," and took a fancy to rubbing her growing belly.

When she gave birth in November, Lundgren was at her side. The baby girl was given up for adoption.

They almost kept the baby, her mother said. "Sometimes I feel that if Amanda had kept her, they wouldn't have been in that car," she said yesterday, while looking at photos of her daughter's child.

As the car sped up Chennault Beach Road early Sunday, Lundgren had asked Bentz to slow down.

"The last thing he said was, `We don't care how fast your new car can go, don't be a (fool),' " Christine Flanigan said.

Police think the Jetta was traveling up to 70 mph on Chennault Beach Road, and about 50 mph when it left the road. The speed limit is 35.

Bentz, who lived north of Edmonds, was an only child. Yesterday his parents weren't ready to talk about their loss.

The other four passengers, who weren't seriously injured, were Suzette Reyes, 18; brothers James Brown, 18, and Elliott Brown, 17; and Trevor Kirksey, 17.

Bentz was popular, with a wide variety of friends. He had a job at the Food Emporium on Mukilteo Speedway.

"He was just one of those kids who's very pleasant, very outgoing," said Robert Stockton, Bentz's art teacher. "Sometimes to the point where I'd have to remind him he needed to get work done in class. He'd say, `OK, Mr. Stockton, I know, I know.' "

An average student generally, Bentz shined in Stockton's class.

"He was one of those kids who was always drawing, always had a sketchbook with him," Stockton said. "He was very meticulous, sometimes to the point of being slow because he wanted it the way he wanted it."

Stockton said that Bentz, whose father is a graphic designer, was particularly adept at pencil drawing.

Bentz was thinking of attending the Art Institute of Seattle some day. Stockton said Bentz told him he didn't think he was ready yet, however, and might start classes instead at Edmonds Community College.

Throughout Sunday and yesterday, friends from Kamiak High drifted to the accident scene. Some carved messages into the thick trunk of the utility pole. The group sometimes swelled to nearly 40 teens and spilled out into the street, where Mukilteo police slowed traffic.

Some teens laid calla lilies and carnations atop a swelling pile of flowers, while others bent to light candles, their flames shuddering in the rain. All were silent; those asked about Bentz had little to say.

"I've had lots of kids come up to me and say, `That could have been me,' " said Stockton.

The accident happened less than one mile from Kamiak, renowned statewide as an educational showplace and, until Sunday morning, a place untouched by mortality.

"Our school is 5 years old; this is the first tragedy among the student body," said Kamiak Principal Bill Sarvis. "It's a real somber mood." ------------------------------- Memorials

-- A memorial for Evan Bentz is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday in the Kamiak High School gymnasium, 10801 Harbour Pointe Blvd., Mukilteo. -- Amanda Flanigan's memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at the Antioch Alliance Church, 16620 Ash Way, Lynnwood.