The Amity Regional High School community was reeling Tuesday after a Monday night car crash in Orange claimed the lives of two students.

Tearful students came together Tuesday to share memories of seniors Salvatore Semmonella, 17, and Francesk Zefi, 18, and to create memorials in their honor at the school and the crash site.

Semmonella was a passenger in the car Zefi was driving on the Wilbur Cross Parkway when it veered off the road just after 9:30 p.m., crashing through a sign for Exit 58 and into a tree on the side of the road, state police said. Both Semmonella and Zefi were pronounced dead at the scene, state police said.

The crash is under investigation by state police and no details were released about what would lead Zefi to lose control of the 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse he was driving.

Zefi only had his driver’s license for a “few months,” said Gov. M. Jodi Rell, citing Department of Motor Vehicle records.

“It’s all so sudden,” said Lindsey A. Arnold, an Amity High School senior. “Just last week, we were talking about Sal and middle school. I feel terrible.”

Friends of Semmonella and Zefi described the two as best friends widely known at the school.

“Francesk was a character and a big time flirt; He was a good kid,” said one friend who was creating a memorial at a rock and bridge near the school’s entrance. “At Amity, we have a tradition of painting this rock and bridge for sports, but we decided to do this as a sort of memorial for them. The two of them were something else.”

“Francesk was one of the nicest kids I have ever met,” Arnold said. “We both tried out for the school play, he had never met me before, but he was so nice to me. He was always nice to everyone.”

Semmonella was a captain of the Amity football team and, like Francesk, was known for his warm personality and sense of humor, friends said.

Amity Superintendent of Schools John Brady said the two stood out in the school as popular and bright students.

“There’s a great sense of loss here,” he said.

Semmonella and Zefi were headed to their homes in Orange when they got on the Wilbur Cross Parkway heading south after playing in a recreational league basketball game at the Jewish Community Center of New Haven on Amity Road in Woodbridge, Brady said. They had traveled less than one exit down the parkway when the one-car accident occurred.

Classes were held as scheduled Tuesday, but grief counselors were available for students who needed them, Brady said. Counselors will continue to be available as students continue to mourn the deaths, he said.

In the wake of this latest fatal accident involving Connecticut teens, Rell sent a letter to the General Assembly’s leadership Monday urging them to take immediate action to help keep teen drivers safe.

In February, two Milford teens were killed and a third was seriously injured in a car accident. The deaths of Semmonella and Zefi were the sixth and seventh teen deaths this year, Rell said. According to DMV’s analysis, motor vehicle accidents claimed 15 teen lives in 2007 and 14 in 2006.

Brady said he supports raising the driving age to 18, but noted that would not have averted this tragedy. He said the school brings a wrecked car to the Amity parking lot to show students the dangers of driving and holds forums on the subject.

“All we can do as educators is educate our students on the dangers, and exhort our kids to be careful,” Brady said.

The Rev. Peter S. Dargan, the pastor of Holy Infant Church in Orange where Semmonella was a congregant, said Zefi and Semmonella were “two great kids with a zest for life.”

“We have no answer to the mystery of human suffering, or why bad things happen to good people,” Dargan said. “What we do know is: When understanding is lacking, faith is still necessary.

“No amount of faith will take away the pain. But if everyone who loves Sal commits, one day at a time, to live their lives with love and purpose to make the world a better place for others, Sal’s memory will live on for a long time to come and light will shine through the darkness.”

Amity cancelled two athletic events scheduled for Tuesday night. The hockey game against Enfield will be played today at 7 p.m. at the Bennett Rink in West Haven. The boy’s basketball team will play Windsor at 7 tonight at Windsor High School.