FOREST SERVICE TO REVIEW `RAVE' POLICY.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Staff Writer

Reacting to the fatal crash of five teen-agers after an all-night ``rave'' party, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday that it will re-examine its policies before authorizing more overnight concerts.

Forest officials also acknowledged they underestimated how many people would attend - at least 7,000 - and did not assign enough rangers to monitor the rave, held at the 58-acre Snowcrest ski resort Saturday night.

``In spite of our efforts, we obviously had a problem. We are going to shut this down until we can assure that we're not going to have this problem again,'' said Terry Ellis, a district ranger in Angeles National Forest.

``It was overwhelming for the piece of ground supporting it,'' said Susan Swinson, a deputy forest supervisor.

On Tuesday, Swinson worked on drafting a new policy statement for the employees who cover the 670,000 acres of forest.

In short, she said, the statement reads in part: ``We will not be authorizing organized events in the National Forest until we've identified the protocols on what the areas can accommodate.''

The Forest Service, which receives back 2 percent to 3 percent of the rave's gross income, vowed that in the future it will study whether more rangers are needed to accommodate a group.

Two U.S. Forest Service rangers were assigned to monitor the all-night party that drew mostly teen-agers. Five CHP officers assisted them. But none of the officials ever entered the rave party, instead focusing on the miles of traffic outside.

``The concerts have never drawn this number of people and we've never had this many deaths associated with one of these,'' said Ellis, who has worked in the Angeles Forest for 19 years.

The monitoring inside was left up to the promoter and permit holder of the event, which hired 70 private security guards.

Trouble surfaced at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, when the first of three drug overdoses was reported. About six hours later, four females and a male leaving the rave party drove off Angeles Crest Highway and plunged 1,200 feet to their deaths.

Investigators said Tuesday that it could take up to four weeks for toxicology results to determine whether drugs or alcohol were factors in their deaths.

Forest officials said Tuesday that they regret the tragedy, but cannot discriminate against other overnight concerts in the forest.

``I need to make sure I'm not picking up a bias on the name `rave.' Instead, I look at whether they are a legal business. Do they have a legal professional standing,'' Swinson said.

But forest officials said they will scrutinize the number of people anticipated at any future event and whether it will promote legal activities.

``The incident will be thoroughly examined by Forest Service officers,'' said Pete Pierce, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service in Washington, D.C. ``We do not arbitrarily screen out requests . . . as long as the proposed activity is legal and within the prescribed operating plan of the forest.''

The crash victims were from San Bernardino County where county officials rejected plans Tuesday for another all-night concert that had been expected to draw 20,000 young people to the High Desert for what some said would be an evening of dancing and drugs.

Meanwhile, the promoters of last weekend's rave, B3/Cande Promotions in Huntington Beach, have not yet determined how they will handle future raves.

One of the rave promoters with B3/Cande, who would give his name only as Brian, expressed sympathy for the families of the crash victims, but said the promoters made every effort to keep the event safe.

``We feel great sorrow for the families and we're trying to deal with it ourselves,'' he said.

``We feel we do everything that every other concert promoter is required to do. There's not much more we can do.''

Staff Writer Harrison Sheppard contributed to this story.