Counselors Offer Support After Fiery Crash That Killed Five Irvine Students

The services came amid new revelations about the driver's license

School counselors were on campus in Irvine Wednesday, two days after five Irvine high-schoolers were killed in a fiery crash that split in half the sedan in which they were traveling.

Abdulrahman M. Alyahyan, 17, a University High School senior, was the driver, while passengers Nozad Al Hamawendi, 17, Cecilia Zamora, 17, and sisters Robin Cabrera, 17, and Aurora Cabrera, 16, were all Irvine High School students.

They were identified Tuesday.

Irvine High School have four counselors and a psychologist available on an average day, but on Wednesday morning there were 25 on campus, said Ian Hanigan of the Irvine Unified School District.

"Their mission is twofold: one is to seek out students hit particularly hard by the tragedy ... and establish a place to go for students who want somewhere to talk," Hanigan said.

As students headed back to class on Wednesday, some held flowers for a memorial.

Krysten Lee, a sophomore, said she wasn't friend with the victims, but she bore a bouquet nonetheless.

"I just wanted to kind of appreciate the people that were killed in the car accident," Lee said. "I just wanna kinda show that I did care about them even though I didn't know them."

Hanigan said is would not be "business as usual" on the Irvine campuses.

Meanwhile, it was revealed on Wednesday that Alyahyan had only a provisional driver's license and was cited in April for violating that license, according to documents provided by the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Alyahyan applied for the license in February, but was required to wait a full year before he could drive other teens. In April, he was cited for adding an exhaust system to his car and for having tinted windows.

"It was illegal, but it kind of happens a lot. Most kids, they get their provisional license, and they think, 'Oh, it's my license, I can do whatever I want now,'" said Davic Grayce, a friend of the victims.

Police still do not know how fast the car was traveling when it hit a tree on median on Jamboree Road, splitting in two and bursting into flames. But they have said they suspect speed was a factor in the crash.

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The busy roadway, designed to carry 32,000 cars a day, has a speed limit of 55 mph.

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