Tyler Scott Isenhour, a sophomore at Lakewood Ranch High School, talked to his friends for years about getting a car and souping up its engine.

Last week, he finally got that car, a 1994 Acura Integra coupe. But he didn't have long to enjoy it or a chance to put in a new engine.

Tyler, 16, died at about 10:30 Monday morning when his car flipped over on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard near State Road 70, about a mile from the high school.

News of the crash flooded student cell phones before day's end. Tyler had two older sisters, and lived in the Greenbrook subdivision with his mother and stepfather.

Tyler and another student, Amanda Walker, a junior, apparently left school without permission and were headed to McDonald's for lunch when the single-car accident occurred, school officials said. Amanda was not seriously injured in the crash.

Grief counselors were in Lakewood Ranch High classrooms Monday and will be available to students again today, the last day of school before the Thanksgiving recess.

Authorities said Tyler was driving south on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard toward State Road 70 when he hit the median and lost control. The car veered to the right, struck the curb and flipped several times before landing on the driver's side. Tyler wasn't wearing a seat belt; Amanda, the passenger, was wearing a seat belt.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

"What speaks volumes more than anything else is seat belt usage," said Lt. Doug Dodson, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. "The passenger had a seat belt on and walked away. The driver was not wearing a seat belt and did not walk away."

Amanda was visibly shaken after the wreck. The 16-year-old emerged from the ambulance an hour after the crash, and she dropped to ground, hysterical.

When family members arrived, she lunged into their arms, and was quickly placed into a car, only yards away from the Acura, where Tyler's body still lay covered in a white sheet.

Witness Mark Urish, one of the men who helped pull Amanda from the wrecked car, said they tried to protect her from further emotional trauma.

"Our focus was to keep her from seeing him," said Urish, a first-year medical student at nearby Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. "She was concerned that we were not getting him out of the car."

Tyler was partially ejected through the driver's side door, and he had severe head injuries, Urish said.

"It was a horrible feeling of helplessness," he said.

A mile away at Lakewood Ranch High, Principal Mike Wilder tried to soothe his grieving school community. Wilder has seen at least three fatal student accidents since the high school opened in 1998.

But Wilder smiled when he spoke about Tyler's life. "He was the kind of kid who comes to school on time and did what he had to do," Wilder said.

Music and friends occupied much of the sophomore's time, he said. "He was a good kid."

Wilder was also trying to figure out why Tyler and Amanda left school grounds without permission. The school does not have parking lot security personnel or monitors to watch for students who sneak off campus.

Wilder spoke to the student body about the crash via an in-house television network, finishing with a stern, but hopeful, warning.

"We always have to look for any good that can come out of any tragedy," he said. "If it's for Tyler that you will put your seat belt on every time you get into a car, then that's what good will come of it."

Outside the school, parents picking up their children were stunned by news of the crash.

Parent Valerie Funk cried when she learned about Tyler. "My son gets his license in four months. It's scary. I feel so bad for his parents," Funk said.

Within minutes of school ending Monday, friends started posting farewell messages to Tyler on his MySpace Web page. One of the friend's online motto was "life's a party," but the messages they left Monday were far more somber.

Junior Courtney Burke, 16, moved to Florida from Michigan at the start of the school year and said she and Tyler became fast friends.

Courtney described Tyler as a friendly, nonjudgemental and generally laid-back guy.

Courtney said one of her friends had a crush on Tyler, and the three of them had plans to hang out Monday afternoon.

She said Tyler was a smart kid, but one who also liked to skip school and tended to have a lead foot.

"He just got his car last week. He always borrowed his mom's car and was really careful," Courtney said. But, she said, "He was really into fast stuff."

Mike Gross, 16, a junior who went to school with Tyler, described him as a popular guy who had really wanted his own car. Mike also was on MySpace after school, messaging friends about losing Tyler. "He had a lot of friends, a lot of people knew him at school. He was a nice guy," Mike said.