The death of two 17-year-old girls in a garage at Crawley after a party is as sad as it is shocking.

Elizabeth Gold and Jennifer Prinn were found dead in a car with a length of hosepipe leading into it from the exhaust.

It looks at this stage as if the deaths were a double suicide, especially as notes were found from the girls. But we will have to wait until an inquest to discover the true facts.

In Victorian times, death stalked nearly every family in the land and it was a lottery as to whether you lived to become an adult.

Huge advances in health mean fewer people die in their teens than at any other time in life. The tragedy is magnified because it is so rare.

These girls were at a party held by a boy of 17 whose parents had gone away for the weekend.

There have been many stories up and down the land of houses being trashed and teenagers partying to excess when their parents are not there.

These two deaths are far more tragic than any trashing, but they emphasise the fact that even youngsters of 17, who are nearly grown up, need some limits to their lives.

Whatever possessed these two girls with everything to live for to die we do not know at the moment.

But the thought that must haunt everyone connected with them is that if an adult had been there this tragedy might never have happened.