LI Community Rallies To Help Teens Who Survived Fatal Car Wreck

Community Corner

LI Community Rallies To Help Teens Who Survived Fatal Car Wreck Fundraisers have been created to help 4 teens who were hospitalized after surviving a car wreck that killed 2 in West Babylon on Saturday.

BABYLON, NY — A broken-hearted community is coming together to help families navigate the devastating aftermath of the West Babylon crash that killed two people, including an 18-year-old, and left four other teens hospitalized with serious injuries on Saturday.

At around 1 a.m. on Saturday, the driver of a Kia sedan blew through a red light heading eastbound on Railroad Avenue and hit a 2025 Kia Seltos traveling southbound on Great East Neck Road that contained five local teenagers.

The sedan's driver, Michael Desmond, 33, of Lindenhurst was pronounced dead on the scene while Riley Goot, 18, of Babylon, a passenger in the Seltos, was pronounced dead shortly after at Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip.

The four surviving teens, Seltos driver, Bella Trezza 17, and her passengers, Austin Trezza 18, Jack Murphy 18, all of Babylon, and Anthony Pagliuca, 16, of West Babylon, were all hospitalized at local hospitals for treatment of serious injuries.

As the community rallies to help families navigating every parent's worst nightmare a GoFundMe has been created to help the Trezza siblings and another for Jack Murphy as their futures remain uncertain.

As Murphy's fundraiser says, the teens "aren't out of the woods yet."

After multiple surgeries, Austin is in stable condition, Bella is on life support after suffering severe brain trauma, losing her spleen and a "tremendous amount of blood," and Jack is still intubated with swollen airways after enduring a long facial surgery to correct devasting injuries.

As of this writing, Patch was unable to obtain an update on Anthony's condition.

According to the Trezza fundraiser, Bella picked up her brother and a few friends from a party and was driving them home when the car was sideswiped and "thrown into a pile of destruction."

It was that numerous lives were turned upside down.

Shortly after, emergency medical services were on the scene, including the West Babylon Volunteer Fire Department crew who found one of their own, Austin, a member of the fire department since 2023.

In a statement, fire department officials said, "Despite this emotional revelation, our team remained focused, continuing their duties until all patients were extracted and transported to nearby hospitals."

Bella, Austin Trezza 18 and Jack were transported to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip while Anthony was transported to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore.

A vigil was held Sunday evening at Pape Field in West Babylon.