Plainedge community mourning loss of 17-year-old Dylan Nuccio, killed in car crash
NORTH MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. -- A Long Island community is supporting a family dealing with heartbreaking family tragedy for the second time. First, a Plainedge school teacher lost her husband to COVID. Then on Tuesday, her teenage son died while driving home from school for lunch.
Inside and outside Plainedge High School, there was anguish and sorrow on Wednesday.
"Dylan was good friends with a lot of people in this school," one student said.
"Yeah, he was a really great friend," another said.
For many, it was difficult to comprehend that their respected classmate, Dylan Nuccio, a 17-year-old with a big heart, lost his life when his cherished BMW veered off the road and hit a grove of trees as he was driving alone during the high school lunch hour on Tuesday morning.
"He loved his car. He just got his car. He just got his license," family friend Anthony De Mieri said. "We are going to have to grieve and move forward, and, hopefully, we can just remember him as the beautiful young star he was about to be."
Students brought poignant messages of love to the site near a ramp heading onto the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway, a route Nuccio was familiar with to and from his Farmingdale family home.
"He cared for a lot of people. It's very sad," a student said.
Grief is not new to the Nuccio family. The community gathered around them in 2021 when Dylan's father, Thomas, lost his battle with COVID, leaving his school teacher wife Colleen to raise their three children alone.
Now, she must bury her only son.
"This is a tragic end to a beautiful soul, a happy child who, unfortunately, was dealt some really tough hands in his life," De Mieri said.
According to the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research, deadly crashes on Long Island have jumped by almost one-third in the past four years. Fatal crashes involving speed more than doubled.
"This loss is sure to raise many emotions, concerns, and questions for our entire school community. We are all working together to support our students and staff as we take the time to process this heartbreaking loss," Plainedge Schools Superintendent Edward A. Salina Jr. said in a statement.
"It's a very depressed environment. It's very sad for all of us," a student said.
As the wake and funeral are planned, the district launched its crisis intervention team.
The superintendent said, for now, students will be prohibited from leaving the Plainedge High School campus for lunch.