Witnesses said they saw the car speeding and squealing its tires before the teenage driver at the wheel lost control and hit a tree Monday across from an elementary school.

The accident near 19th and Stockwell streets left four teenagers in the hospital.

Megan Churchill, 15, and Austin Jones, 17, were in the back seat of the car and suffered critical injuries, Officer Katherine Finnell said.

Megan is a freshman at Lincoln High School, and Jones is a senior there.

The conditions of Ricky Turco, the driver, and another passenger, Joshua Rice, were not available at BryanLGH Medical Center West.

Both are 17-year-olds.

Rice is a junior at North Star, according to Becky Wild, director of student services at Lincoln Public Schools.

Until recently, Turco had been enrolled in classes at a Lincoln school, too. Though Wild said she couldn’t say where.

Finnell said Turco was driving a white 2000 Chrysler Concorde east on Stockwell with the three passengers when he lost control and struck a tree on the southwest corner of 19th and Stockwell.

Witnesses said the car had been accelerating, squealing its tires and revving its engine before the accident, according to the accident report.

The Chrysler cleared 18th and Stockwell, then bottomed out and lost control. It hit a curb and drove through yards, hitting a mailbox and garbage can before hitting a tree in front of 1839 Stockwell.

Police were called to the scene — across the street from Beattie Elementary — at 3:25 p.m. Callers reported the car was on fire.

All four had serious injuries, Finnell said. Rice, who was riding in the front seat, was trapped.

Most parents have the misconception it’s less dangerous for teens to drive during the day, said Fred Zwonechek, administrator of the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety.

Statistically, though, teen drivers are involved in 1 in 4 crashes in Nebraska, despite representing only 8 percent of licensed drivers.

And, many of those accidents happen between 3 and 6 p.m., he said. And that’s particularly true in the spring, as weather starts to get nicer and the end of the school year nears.

“When these kinds of crashes occur, whether it involves fatalities or not, it does serve a purpose of getting parents’ attention … and that’s a good thing.”

Because, Zwonechek said, just as teens tend to think it’s not going to happen to them, so, too, do their parents.

“When in fact there are far too many teen drivers that are involved in crashes in Nebraska,” he said.

Every year, Zwonechek said, the state loses 35 to 40 teen drives and thousands more are injured.

Crash rates for teen drivers have improved significantly since graduated licenses went into effect in Nebraska, he said. But more can be done.

Teens should take a driver training program and get in the habit of wearing seat belts. And Zwonechek said parents should ride with them to see how they’re doing and set guidelines for the number of passengers, a proven distraction for inexperienced drivers.

“At any point in time something like what happened yesterday can obviously happen to any one of us with tragic results.”

Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.