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David Knight's cell phone started ringing at 6:20 a.m. Monday. The track coach, who had spent days explaining death to his 12-year-old daughter, a huge Michael Jackson fan, learned one of his star athletes and his daughter's best friend, Shiane Dixon, 12, of Boyds had died in a car crash.

Around 4:40 a.m. Monday, Shiane's mother, Diane Dixon lost control of her sport utility vehicle while driving south on Interstate 95 near Petersburg, Va., said Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller. Shiane's brother, Hassan Dixon, 16, and family friends Jordan Lusane, 18, of Boyds and Taylor Scott, 12, of Damascus were passengers in the 2000 Lincoln Navigator, Geller said.

The SUV rolled four times. Shiane Dixon was thrown from the vehicle and hit by a tractor trailer, Geller said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Diane Dixon was airlifted to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia where she is in stable condition, said spokeswoman Malorie Janis. Hassan Dixon, Jordan Lusane and Taylor Scott have been treated and released from hospitals, said Geller and Janis.

A candlelight vigil was planned for Tuesday night.

Knight and his wife Alexia, founders and coaches of the Maryland Titans track club, and two other Titans' coaches and their wives drove to Richmond on Tuesday to be with the Dixons. According to the track club's Web site, the father of Shiane and Hassan, Zack Dixon, is the strength and conditioning coach for the team.

"We've been coaching Shiane and Hassan for six years," David Knight said. "Shiane's like a daughter to us, she's going to be missed."

"It's a shock," said Stephen Whiting, principal of Rocky Hill Middle School in Clarksburg, where Dixon was a rising eighth grader. "It's not news you expect to hear."

Whiting said he had known the Dixon's for six years. Whiting said Diane Dixon was the treasurer for the Parents, Teachers and Students Association at Rocky Hill Middle School.

"She was an outstanding student," Whiting said.

Shiane, pronounced like Cheyenne, Wyo., was "quiet and reserved" when she wasn't around close friends, Knight said. He joked that the "Shi part of her name was appropriate."

Shiane was a great athlete and would only have gotten better, he said.

"Out of the six years we coached her, she qualified for nationals three of those years," Knight said.

Mark Maradei, head football coach at Northwest High School, said Hassan Dixon was a returning star from last season. Maradei said he met the family in February and had developed a great rapport with Diane Dixon. She took Hassan Dixon to football camps at Temple University and University of Connecticut last weekend.

"We were texting each other Friday and she said they were going to Orlando this week on vacation," Maradei said.

Hassan Dixon, also a member of the Titans, was named to the All-Gazette boys track and field first teams for indoor and outdoor this school year. He ran on Northwest High's Class 4A state-champion 4x400-meter relay teams during both seasons. He was also an honorable mention All-Gazette running back for the Jaguars' football team last fall. Lusane also played football with the Jaguars.