CRASH VICTIM IDENTIFIED GIRL'S DEATH THIRD FOR SCHOOL IN MONTH.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A teenage girl killed Saturday night when the pickup truck in which she was riding overturned on the Antelope Valley Freeway has been identified as Rosamond High School junior Nicole Schaefer.

The 16-year-old's death was the third to strike the high school in five weeks: 2000 graduate Pete Biggs, 19, died Sept. 1 when he was hit by a wrong-way driver on the Antelope Valley Freeway, and former student Roxanne Wright, 19, died Oct. 1 when the car she was riding in overturned on Division Street north of Lancaster.

``This one kind of really hit home for most of the kids who are still in school,'' Principal Rebecca Evers said.

Three adults with connections to the school have also died recently, she said.

Schaefer was well known at Rosamond High, where she had been a class officer her freshman and sophomore years and had played basketball and volleyball.

Scores of grieving students talked to counselors, Evers said.

``We had counselors set up in the career center,'' she said. ``Each period we had between 45 and 50 kids taking advantage of that service.''

The truck's driver, 19-year-old Federico Thompson of Rosamond, was traveling more than 75 mph and lost control when he tried to pass slower vehicles by driving onto the dirt median, California Highway Patrol officials said.

``It seems from what the witnesses said he was speeding all along and passing other cars and came up on two cars that were side by side,'' CHP Officer Rusty Moore said.

The crash occurred about 7:30 p.m. Saturday north of Avenue G, the CHP said. After going out of control, the Mazda pickup truck rolled across the median and came to a rest upright in the northbound lanes.

The girl, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown out of the truck as it rolled. She was pronounced dead at Antelope Valley Hospital.