Yough community grieves after 4 high school students killed in car crash
Online fundraisers have been set up to aid the victims’ families.
By JAMES ENGEL AND BRIAN C. RITTMEYER
TribLive
Mourners gathered Sunday at an impromptu creekside memorial in Sewickley Township to honor four Yough High School students killed in a car crash early Saturday morning.
Many cried or stood solemnly at the picturesque site. Some left flowers, photos and other keepsakes near the creek bank, still scattered with broken glass and charred by the fiery crash.
Shane Venezia was among the visitors. He said his cousin had died in the Saturday crash.
Mourners gather at a makeshift memorial in Sewickley Township for four people killed in a fiery car crash along Sewickley Creek on Saturday. (Louis B. Ruediger | TribLive)
A resident of East Palestine, Ohio, Venezia, 21, said he rushed to Sewickley Township on Saturday to help comfort his family.
But he, too, wept as he stood at the makeshift shrine along Sewickley Creek. He said he had barely slept.
“I’m glad they made the memorial,” Venezia said. “But it breaks my heart just to see it.”
Westmoreland County Coroner John Ackerman released the students’ names Sunday night — Brady D. Hunker, 15, of
Aubree Paul is embraced by Cameron Miller as mourners gather at the fatal crash site on Saturday. Louis B. Ruediger / TribLive
Herminie; Rocco A. Zugai, 18, of West Newton; Felicity M. Martini, 15, of Yukon; and Kylee Nicole Korber, 16, of Smithton.
They were identified using DNA analysis, Ackerman said in an updated report.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, Yough School District had confirmed the victims were high school students.
In a statement to the Yough community, Superintendent Anthony R. DeMaro said they believe the best way to help students and staff is to have school in session on Monday. Additional counselors and support staff will be available at the middle and high schools to help grieving students and staff.
“Being together will allow us to provide care, connection, and support during this difficult time,” DeMaro’s statement said. “We encourage anyone who is struggling to reach out and take advantage of these supports.”
Venezia called his cousin who died in the crash “feisty” but “caring.” He said they didn’t always get along, but they loved each other.
“I’d do anything to have an argument with her again,” Venezia said.
Elena Unger, a Yough sophomore, said she knew the four victims of the crash. She recently had been messaging one of them to make plans, she said.
A day-and-a-half after the crash, Unger, 17, said it still feels like she’s waiting to wake up from a dream.
“Everyone’s lost,” she said. Jeremy Jackson, a high school student from Norwin, dropped off some keepsakes at the memorial. He said he was friends with one of the crash victims.
The incident, he said, was “heartbreaking.” “He was definitely a funny boy,” Jackson, 17, said of one of the victims.
Passing by the memorial on his motorcycle, Richard O’Brien stopped to pay his respects.
Though he didn’t know the victims, O’Brien paused to shake hands with mourners and offer his condolences.
“I hate to see this kind of stuff,” he said.
About a mile up the road in South Huntingdon, Yukon Volunteer Fire Department made the “last minute” decision to donate the proceeds of its annual Easter Bunny Breakfast to the families of the victims, said Assistant Chief Dawn Schaer.
The department also created an online donation page to aid the families.
GoFundMe pages have been set up for three of the victims at:
• https://gofund.me/714a764ab.
• https://gofund.me/1c8af2454.
• https://gofund.me/389bc58ce. A mother of four, Schaer said news of the crash has “devastated” the Yough community.
“It’s just touched all of us,” she said. Still, Schaer said, she was glad to see the community come out to the fundraiser and was impressed by the amount of online donations.
Another online fundraiser for Brady Hunker, one of the victims, had garnered more than 200 donations and over $15,000 by early Sunday evening.
It’s been decades since the mostly rural community has seen anything like Saturday’s crash.
On March 16, 1974, six Sewickley Township teenagers were killed in a two-vehicle collision on Lowber Road near Herminie. Bryan Grabar, 17; Bruce Grabar, 14; Mark Lash, 16; Kerry Weigand, 15; James Steban, 15; and Keith Carvallis, 16, died in the crash.
