Will Christianson, a budding writer who would have begun at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in September, was struck Monday night when he swerved in front of a Lexus that was traveling behind him on East Camden Avenue, police said.

The news sent waves of grief through a community still mourning Evan Welch and Eric Messick, Moorestown High seniors who died in crashes in December.

"It's gotten to the point where you don't know how to react," said Lisa McGovern, who helped organize graduation activities for the class, which included her daughter, Brittany.

"Everybody's in shock, but you don't really know what to do. How can I comfort my daughter and her friends, because how can you explain the reason behind this? Three kids? One class?"

Scott Palombo, the class president, echoed that yesterday.

"I've always said that if we just stick together, we'll make it through anything, and we tried to do that this year," Palombo said of his classmates. "But it feels like we're cursed."

Welch and Messick died just a week apart. Welch, 18, was a passenger in a car driven by fellow Moorestown student Daniel Friedmann, 18, who was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Messick, 17, was riding in a car that was hit by a car driven by Jesse Johns, 31, who pleaded guilty last month to vehicular homicide and acknowledged that he was drunk at the time of the crash.

The presence of Welch and Messick was acutely felt among the 343 members of Moorestown's senior class when they graduated June 19. School officials presented honorary diplomas to the teenagers' families, the two were mentioned in speeches, and students sang an Irish blessing in tribute.

"We tried to keep it uplifting because the kids were graduating, and they did honor the kids that were gone," McGovern said. But parents "didn't want to dwell on that because they wanted their kids to remember this as a great time in their lives."

With Christianson's death, the parents she has talked to are "astounded," McGovern said. "They're just beside themselves."

Christianson, the son of Allan and Linda Christianson, received the Clark Bucko Memorial Scholarship, $1,500 given annually to a student who demonstrated a love of literature.

The award, which he received shortly before graduation, came as little surprise to his friends. They described Christianson yesterday as a gifted writer and an intelligent, fiercely loyal young man who was admired by students and adults.

He was, students and parents said, the kind of person with whom everyone wanted to be friends.

Christianson had a passion for music, film and writing, interests that led him to make many friends outside his hometown. In the summer of 2006, he was profiled in a New York Times article while interning with a Philadelphia musician and sales representative who befriended Christianson and sought his advice for a youth marketing project.

Christianson wrote reviews of concerts, movies and other aspects of the Philadelphia arts scene on blogs. Friends said he was considering pursuing critical writing in college.

He often rode his bike around his neighborhood, acquaintances said, and that was what he was doing about 5:30 p.m. Monday.

The police said Christianson, who was not wearing a helmet, turned into the path of the car that struck him. The driver, an 89-year-old woman from Merchantville, has not been charged. Police are investigating.

Christianson was airlifted to the trauma center at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. He died of head injuries shortly before 3 p.m. yesterday.

"He had so much promise," said Pat Phelan, another graduation coordinator, whose 18-year-old daughter, Elyse, was a friend of Christianson's. ". . . It almost feels as if there's a black cloud over the town."