Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Keith Hubbard and others pause before a girls basketball game at Franklin County High School on Tuesday for a moment of silence to remember Zach Parsons, killed in a Monday crash, as well as those injured. "It's been a really hard day," said Hubbard, a government teacher at the school.

Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Roses grace the Franklin County High School flagpole after a crash that killed Zachary Parsons, 17. No information was available about the conditions of four people hospitalized after the collision.

Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Members of the Franklin County girls basketball team pause for a moment to remember the student killed in Monday's wreck.

Facebook photo

Zach Parsons was a junior and a member of the Air Force ROTC at Franklin County High School.

Correction (Jan. 25, 2012: 2:38 p.m.): The driver of the 2000 Mercury Cougar sideswiped a Toyota Scion and hit a Dodge Dakota pickup head-on. The model of the Dodge vehicle was wrong in previous versions of this story. The story has been updated. | Our corrections policy

UPDATE Jan. 25: State police continue investigation into Franklin County wreck fatal to teen

ROCKY MOUNT — Rumors swirled and the community mourned Tuesday as news spread that Franklin County High School had lost one of its own.

Zachary Ian Parsons, 17, died at the scene of a horrific collision that happened Monday shortly after the end of the school day and just a short drive from the high school.

Parsons was a junior and a member of the school's Air Force ROTC.

Parsons "was his own person," said Franklin County High School Principal Debora Decker.

Parsons, who was wearing a seat belt, was riding in the front seat of a 2000 Mercury Cougar driven by a 17-year-old girl and carrying two other 17-year-old boys in the back.

The Cougar was northbound on Booker T. Washington Highway near Beechdale Road about 3:45p.m. when the driver lost control. The car went across the centerline and struck an oncoming 2008 Toyota Scion, then a 2004 Dodge Dakota pickup truck, according to state police spokesman Sgt. Rob Carpentieri.

The Mercury swerved off the highway, hit a roadside building and two parked cars, then came to rest.

Carpentieri said the structure that was hit appeared to be a store or gas station, and said neither the building nor the parked cars were occupied at the time.

The driver of the Mercury and the two back-seat passengers were taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, police have said. Neither their names nor their conditions were available Tuesday.

Barry Whitlow, guidance coordinator for Franklin County High School, said all four teenagers in the Cougar were students at the school.

The driver of the pickup truck, Jonathan Hall, 26, of Glade Hill also was reported injured and taken to Roanoke Memorial. The hospital did not release information about Hall on Tuesday.

Jason Beavers, 28, of Collinsville was the driver of the Scion and was not hospitalized.

"It was high speed," Carpentieri said of the crash, but he said a state police investigative team is in the process of reconstructing the wreck, and had not yet released its findings.

Although state police have said Parsons lived in Boones Mill, school officials said his listed address is Rocky Mount, adding to the confusion Tuesday, Decker said.

Reports that more than one student had died also spread quickly, making a difficult day harder on students and faculty, she said.

A few hundred students gathered Tuesday morning to show support for the injured students and remember Parsons at the flagpole in front of Ramsey Hall, with students leaving flowers and comforting one another.

Parsons and others involved in the wreck were honored with a moment of silence Tuesday night at the school's home basketball game against George Washington High School.

"Franklin County High School students are pretty unique, because when tragedy occurs, they set aside their differences and help each other," Decker said.

Students planned to meet again today and Thursday morning before school for support and comfort.

About 20 to 25 students came to speak with counselors available at the school Tuesday, Whitlow said, while some others either stayed home or went home early.

"We were there for support, but the kids were just there for each other," Whitlow said of the counseling outreach. "It is a huge school but really a very small community."

The Student Council Association had approached school administration about a fundraiser for the families of those injured or killed in the wreck, but no plans have been formalized, Decker said.

Eleven teenagers have been killed in wrecks throughout the state this month, up from three during the same period last year, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Staff writer Jorge Valencia contributed to this report.