NEWTON TOWNSHIP -- A young man is dead following an early morning crash in Lackawanna County.
Police say Geoffrey Galdieri, 19, of Newport Township, veered off Newton-Ransom Boulevard around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. His vehicle crashed through a yard before finally stopping in a field in Newton Township.
Galdieri`s Subaru Legacy was left crumpled after the crash. The police chief says the force of the crash threw the teenager from the vehicle. He died at the scene.
“He must have come right over the wall there, you know the corner of the wall up there because the stones on the ground up there,” said Andy Borek of Newton Township.
Borek pointed to the area where the car went off the road and then came through his neighbor's yard before stopping on Borek's property.
Borek says he didn't know the teenager had died there overnight until someone at the fire department told him.
“And then Teddy said, 'Did you hear about that accident on your property?'" said Borek. “And I said, 'No, I didn't hear anything about any accident.' And he says, 'There was a boy that was killed, 19-year-old boy that was killed.'"
Andy Snyder is the principal of Abington Heights High School and says Galdieri graduated from there last year.
“I got the call on my way in this morning and it really puts you back,” said Snyder. “You see these young lives and so much promise and so much possibility and something happens so quickly.”
Parents said some of their children came home talking about Galdieri's sudden death.
“She just said that he had passed away and he went to Abington,” said parent Janet Healey. “It's terrible, yeah it is, how fleeting life really is. I said to her what a shame. She said they just said that he had graduated last year.”
“It was sad, very, very sad, young boy,” said Borek.
It’s not known why Galdieri’s car veered off the road. The crash investigation is ongoing.