The four men killed in crash on the Schuylkill Expressway have been identified

The four men killed in a two-car crash early Saturday morning on the westbound Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia have been identified, and a 31-year-old West Chester man has been charged in their deaths.

A GoFundMe was created to cover funeral expenses of Tucker Schimelfenig and Christian Schimelfenig, twin 23-year-old brothers who were natives of Clarks Summit, near Scranton, and their longtime friend Michael Comerford, 24, who was also a Clarks Summit native.

According to the Times-Tribune of Scranton, all three had spent a night out at McGillin’s Olde Ale House in Center City and had requested a ride-sharing vehicle to go home. The ride-share driver, identified in news reports as 31-year-old Jan Carlo Santana, of Philadelphia, also was killed.

Victor A. Spizzirri has been charged with four counts of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and related offenses, according to court records.

Spizzirri’s car struck the ride-share vehicle near the northbound exit to Route 1 about 1:44 a.m., the Pennsylvania State Police said.

Spizzirri’s vehicle had crossed multiple lanes and struck the ride-share vehicle from behind, then spun and overturned several times before coming to a stop on the right shoulder of the off-ramp to Route 1 northbound, the state police said.

The ride-share vehicle was propelled into a bridge pillar. All four occupants of the ride-share vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene. Spizzirri was taken to Temple University Hospital with moderate injuries and showed signs of impairment before he was arrested, state police said.

Court records show Spizzirri is being held on $1 million bail; his next court appearance is scheduled for May 2.

Xavier Pomrink, a co-organizer of the GoFundMe, wrote that he had attended Thomas Jefferson University with Tucker Schimelfenig for four years and that they’d lived in the same hall during freshman year. They were in the same fraternity and graduated together, Pomrink said. Schimelfenig was president of the fraternity during the 2021-2022 school year.

Although Pomrink was a pre-medical studies major and Schimelfenig was a mechanical engineering major, they shared many STEM classes together, Pomrink said.

Tucker Schimelfenig was on the roster of the Abington Heights High School basketball team when it won the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Class 5A statewide championship in 2018.

Christian Schimelfenig said on LinkedIn that he graduated from West Chester University in 2022 and recently was studying data science at the University of Pennsylvania. A Penn spokesperson confirmed Tuesday evening that Christian Schimelfenig was taking a non-credit, continuing-education course.

On Comerford’s LinkedIn page, he said he worked in Philadelphia for a global recruitment company. He said he graduated from St. Joseph’s University in 2022 and Scranton Preparatory School in 2018.

“The Scranton Prep community is truly heartbroken over the tragic loss of our beloved alumnus, Michael Comerford, as well as the losses of Christian and Tucker Schimelfenig and Jan Santana,” the school’s administration said in an emailed statement.

“Michael was a wonderful young man with his entire life ahead of him. He touched the hearts of so many during his days at Prep as he lived out the Jesuit value of being a man for others,” the school said.

“During times like these, all that we can do as a community is pray for and support those who are dealing with unimaginable loss, so [on Monday] we held a special Mass to pray for the Comerford, Schimelfenig, and Santana families and friends. We will continue to pray as we mourn, and we will also celebrate and thank God for the time that we had with Michael,” the school said.