Pottsgrove students mourn friend killed in car accident

One of Tim Paciello's best friends stood with classmates Tuesday on a side street across from Pottsgrove High School. The last bell had rung about 15 minutes before.

He cried. They tried to comfort him. He cried.

"He was there for everyone," his friend, a junior at the school, said about Paciello between labored breaths. "He didn't care who you were. He didn't care what you liked."

Paciello, a 16-year-old student who died Monday, cared only about being a good friend.

On Monday, just before 9 p.m., Paciello was struck by a car as he crossed East High Street by Sunnyside Avenue in Lower Pottsgrove Township, said the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office and Lower Pottsgrove Township Police.

He died after being flown to Hahnemann University Hospital. The 43-year-old Collegeville woman who drove the car stayed at the scene and was cooperating with police.

Paciello was a member of the wrestling team and "a fine student" who also attended classes at Western Montgomery Career and Technology Center, said Shellie A. Feola, acting superintendent of the Pottsgrove School District.

The district on Tuesday sent counselors to talk with students and staff at the schools Paciello attended, Feola said.

Many of the high school's students, whose age betrays their status as veterans of grief, learned when they arrived at school that another peer had died.

Teachers had the same solemn expressions on their faces Tuesday as on that day in November three years ago when a Honda SUV carrying six students - five from the high school - lost control and crashed into another car in Chester County's East Coventry Township, said seniors Martinique Kehler, 18, and Samantha Cornwall, 17. Two students died in that accident.

"Everyone in this school knows how it feels to lose someone," Cornwall said. "Everyone is there for each other."

Paciello's friend was not just sad, he also was angry.

"Because of one stupid mistake . . . now my friend is dead," he said.

Paciello's mother was in her living room Tuesday afternoon, surrounded by visitors as she talked with Lower Pottsgrove Police Chief Michael A. Foltz. People who looked of high school age drove up in a truck, went into the house, and left a few minutes later.

Well before school had let out, students had begun expressing their disbelief and sorrow in sad bursts on Twitter.

"Rest in peace Timmy," wrote one girl.

"I dedicate my wrestling season this year to my lost teammate and friend Timmy Paciello," wrote a young man. "I'm gonna make it to states for you man."