Memorial set up at crash site

Stunned friends and family paid tribute to Sara Noel Harris Monday with a memorial at the Costa Mesa site of her fatal accident and a gathering at the home of Harris’ parents.

Tammy Gagnon worked with Harris as a waitress at the Players Sports Grill in Laguna Hills.

“She was just a young gorgeous, gorgeous girl and this is just tragic,” Gagnon said at Harris’ parents home. “She was totally full of life.”

The memorial at Adams Avenue and Mesa Verde Drive included bouquets of flowers duct-taped around the base of the light pole that Harris, 21, of Huntington Beach, smashed into Sunday, an 8-by-11 portrait of Harris and poster boards displaying messages from friends, family and passersby.

“We will always love you,” one of the inscriptions read. “You will always be in our hearts.”

Many at the memorial Monday afternoon — red-eyed and teary — said they were too grief stricken to speak about Harris.

Dan Hay, who knew Harris when she played softball and he coached opposing teams, said she was an excellent athlete.

“In her younger years, when she was 10 through the age of 13 or 15, she was probably one of the best pitchers in Orange County,” Hay said.

Harris was driving a black Audi east on Adams Avenue when she lost control and smashed into a light pole in the Mesa Verde Drive intersection, police said. Another vehicle, possibly a silver Audi, was seen speeding alongside Harris’ vehicle before the accident, police said. Police are investigating to see if the second Audi was involved in the crash.

Harris was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach where she was pronounced dead on arrival. County coroners plan to have completed the autopsy today, authorities said.

— Michael Alexander contributed to this report.