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Best friends killed in N.J. crash. Counselors provided for friends, others affected by tragedy.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007 • BY MIKE FRASSINELLI • Star-Ledger Staff

For the third time in a year, grief counselors were back at Phillipsburg High School, where they set up conference rooms for students to talk, cry or just sit and think.

The deaths over the weekend of senior Frank "Pring" Thiel and graduate Edward J. McNally in a car accident in Lopatcong Township marked the third crash in the township since Feb. 4, 2006, that killed Phillipsburg students and graduates.

It also put into place an all-too- familiar drill in which counselors ar rive at 7 a.m. and set up rooms for grieving students.

"Unfortunately, we're trained in this type of thing," Phillipsburg School Superintendent H. Gordon Pethick said yesterday. "It is an awful situation, for the loss of lives of these young people."

Thiel, 18, and McNally, 19, were BMX-bike-loving buddies who worked together. They died early Sunday after their car crashed into a telephone pole on Route 519 and broke in half.

Police said excessive speed might have been a factor in the crash on the 50-mph roadway.

The grief counselors also were on hand at the 1,750-student high school after the Oct. 17 crash that killed 22-year-old Jenna M. Piperato and 16-year-old Phillipsburg High student Emily Greco on Route 22, and after the crash last February that killed 18-year-old Charles J. Slack III and 15-year-old Phillipsburg High student Amber Matlock, again on Route 22.

But there was a different feel about yesterday's counseling ses sions.

"Obviously, the third time in a year is a little unusual," said Bob Pierfy, a 20-year district employee who has been the student assistance coordinator for 18 years. "I think there's a little bit more of a stun effect."

Pierfy said the counselors, who will be on hand through tomorrow, try to assure students their feelings of grief are normal and that "they are not alone."

Students can talk alone or in a group, and youngsters handle their grief in different ways.

"Some kids sit down there an hour and go back to class," Pierfy said. "Some kids will stay three hours."

Other youngsters gathered yesterday at the accident site or expressed their sympathies in Myspa ce.com tributes.

Myspace user "i drilled my hair out" wrote on Thiel's page: "remember when we used to build the craziest snow tunnel/fort creations at green street school? or when we broke that stupid trailor window? or when we used to stuff pillows in oversized clothing and smash into each other like idiots?"

User Feck wondered: "pring whyd this have to happen to my best friend and pretty much my brother."

Thiel's nickname, "Pring," stuck after someone mispronounced Frank.

Relatives said the likable teen, the youngest of three brothers, was born in Edison but grew up in Phillipsburg, where he became an honor roll student and an avid BMX bike rider who liked Volkswagen vehicles. He was driving his green VW Jetta south on Route 519 shortly before 1:30 a.m. Sunday when the vehicle crossed the roadway and struck the telephone pole, police said.

Funeral services for Thiel are scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at Doyle-Devlin Funeral Home, 695 Corliss Ave., Phillipsburg. The viewing is 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.

McNally's Myspace page was filled with tributes recalling his abilities as a dancer and the "Edddddddddd" call that would accompany his entrance to a party.

A user named "lex" commented: "i don't think i'll ever know anyone else who would waste an afternoon hammering through cinder blocks just to save my cell phone ... then drive up to hope just to give it to me asap so i wouldn't get in trouble. you were one of the few kind hearted people in this world."

Funeral services for McNally are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Johnson Walton Funeral Home, 24 Church Road, Milford. The viewing is 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday.

All-too-familiar grieving follows fatal teen crash

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