FARMINGDALE, NY : Funerals begin Tuesday in Farmingdale crash that killed 5 teens on May 10th 2014

Friends, family and classmates will gather Tuesday to bid a final farewell to the first of five Long Island high school students to be laid to rest following a deadly crash over the weekend.

Funeral services will be held for 17-year-old driver Tristan Reichle, who was behind the wheel when his car careened into oncoming traffic and struck an SUV eary Saturday. A funeral for 18-year-old Jesse Romero is also scheduled for noon at the Arthur F. White Funeral Home, at 315 Conklin Street in Farmingdale.

A wake for Reichle will take place from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Fredrick J. Chapey and Sons Funeral Home, located at 20 Hicksville Road Bethpage. Other services will be private.

Grief counselors remain on hand at Farmingdale High School, where all five victims were students, though one had already graduated.
Four of them -- Reichle, Romero, 14-year-old Carly Lonborg and 15-year-old Noah Francis -- died immediately after the accident, while the fifth, 17-year-old Cody Talanian, died at Nassau University Medical Center late Sunday.

Police are still investigating the cause of the deadly crash, while the grieving process continues in the community.
Many classmates visited a growing makeshift memorial at the scene of the crash Monday.

"Our deepest condolences to all the other families, they're in our prayers, we're not the only ones affected by this," said John Lonborg, Carly's father. "There's four other families."

Family members say the friends had been hanging out, as they did many times before, in a parking lot about a half a mile away from where the accident happened.

"He had so many things that were going well for him," Reichle's uncle George Gasparotti said. "He got a job. He was going to be 18 in two weeks. He had everything the whole world."

Police say Reichle's car crossed over into oncoming traffic on Conklin Avenue, striking a Suburban. Several of the kids died instantly.

Many students at Farmingdale High School wore green Monday, the school's color, to show their solidarity.

Roughly 2,000 people attended a memorial service at St. Kilian's Roman Catholic Church Sunday night, trying to come to grips with the horrific loss.

School principal Glen Zakian was expecting the coming days to be the most difficult of his career.

"We will have grief counselors, social workers, guidance counselors, school psychologists all on staff, ready to help not only our students, but our faculty as well," he said. "There going to be looking at their student body and knowing there's a loss in their classroom, too. So our main goal is to help the students get through this, and then the faculty and staff as we fight through this."

Next to the spot where the crash happened on Conklin Street, friends have been leaving flowers with notes, colorful reminders of the bright lives lost and the dark cloud now hanging over Farmingdale.

A wake will be held for Lonborg Wednesday and Thursday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Trudden Funeral Home at 385 Main Street in Farmingdale. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Kilian's Church at 485 Conklin Street in Farmingdale.

A wake for Talanian will be held Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Charles J. O'Shea Funeral Home, at 603 Wantagh Avenue in Wantagh. The funeral will be held at 10:45 a.m. Thursday at St. Kilian's.

Francis will be mourned at a wake Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Arthur F. White Funeral Home, followed by a prayer service at 6 p.m. His body will be brought to Kansas City for burial.

Source :
Funerals begin Tuesday in Farmingdale crash that killed 5 teens