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Funeral services are set this week for the three 20-year-old men killed in a fiery crash early Mother’s Day morning in Bethpage.
Gino Vicale of Seaford, Nicholas Rivera of Glendale, and Vincent Cavaliere of Bethpage were pronounced dead at the scene after the SUV in which they were traveling slammed into a tree near Bethpage State Park and became engulfed in flames, according to Nassau County police.
The crash occurred about 1 a.m. Sunday on Stymus Avenue near Carol Drive. Police said the 2022 Dodge Durango was traveling east when it left the roadway and crashed. The Bethpage Fire Department responded to extinguish the fire.
The three victims graduated together from Plainedge High School. Police have not revealed who was driving or what caused the crash. The investigation is ongoing.
A GoFundMe effort established to assist the families of Vicale, Rivera and Cavaliere has raised more than $32,000 via nearly 400 contributions. Fox 5 reporter Briella Tomassetti, whose younger brother was a friend of the victims, launched the fundraising campaign to help the grieving families with funeral and burial expenses.
Services for Vincent Cavaliere
Visitation for Vincent Cavaliere is set for Thursday, May 15, from 4 to 8 p.m., at Dalton Funeral Home, 2786 Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown. A funeral Mass will be held Friday, May 16, at 9:45 a.m. at Maria Regina Church, 3945 Jerusalem Avenue in Seaford. A private cremation will follow.
Known to friends as “Vin,” “VC,” or “Cav,” Cavaliere was a student at Plainedge High School and later attended Assumption University in Massachusetts, where he played football and studied business marketing.
Family and friends remembered him as someone who “brought light and laughter to everyone he met” and who maintained a deep commitment to his loved ones. He is survived by his parents, Joe and Margaret, and his siblings, Joseph, Charlotte and Jack.
Services for Gino Vicale
Visitation for Gino Vicale will be held Monday, May 19, from 4 to 8 p.m., and Tuesday, May 20, from 9 to 10 a.m., at Fredrick J. Chapey & Sons Funeral Home, 20 Hicksville Road, Bethpage.
A prayer service is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday at the funeral home. A funeral service is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday at the funeral home.
Vicale’s obituary was not immediately available, but a tribute on his memorial page from a friend and co-worker read: “That smile was so contagious & your caring heart touched so many.”
Services for Nicholas Rivera
Visitation for Nicholas Rivera will is scheduled for Saturday, May 17, from 4 to 8 p.m., also at Fredrick J. Chapey & Sons Funeral Home in Bethpage. A private cremation will follow.
Rivera is survived by his parents Sandra Cooperman and Damon Rivera; his siblings Damon Rivera Jr. and Alyssa McCrodden; and his grandparents, Norman and Donna Cooperman, Daisy Diaz Jimenez, and Luis and Joan Rivera, as well as numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
He enjoyed working out at the gym and aspired to be an MMA fighter, according to his obituary.
Top photos: (from left) Gino Vicale of Seaford, Nicholas Rivera of Glendale, and Vincent Cavaliere of Bethpage died in a car wreck in Bethpage early Sunday (Source: Fredrick J. Chapey & Sons Funeral Home and Dalton Funeral Home).
