Accident Claims Teen's Life In Unity Township
UNITY TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- A community is in mourning following the death of a teenager who was struck by a car.
Zachary Colucci, 14, was a freshman member of the Greater Latrobe football team and had a bright future ahead.
"He was a kid that didn't say much," Latrobe High School Football Coach Ray Rietz said.
"He very seldom talked, but when you talked to him he looked you in the eye and he just did everything you asked him.
"He was a dream to coach."
Investigators say the accident happened just before 11 p.m. Saturday on White School Road in Unity Township. A small, makeshift memorial now marks the spot where the crash happened.
"We're going to do the best we can but we'll get through it because our big thing right now is lean on each other and stay together and that's what we're trying to do," Rietz said.
Colucci was planning to go corning, a common pre-Halloween activity where teens thrown handfuls of corn kernels at houses or cars.
The group was apparently running away when Colucci ran into the road. His brother saw it happen.
"I was up till four in the morning, didn't know what to do," a friend of the victim told KDKA-TV. "Found out he died. [I] was at his house swimming last summer. It was … I don't even know how to describe."
The driver was a 17-year-old friend of Colucci's brother. Police say there's nothing he could have done to avoid the collision.
"Every indication leads us to believe that he just happened to be traveling on that roadway at the exact worse time for him to be traveling at that roadway," State Trooper Steve Limani said.
Police say they don't believe charges will be filed in this case because the driver had no idea the other teen was in the area.
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