TEANECK — They hugged and cried and shook their heads in disbelief. They wondered how a family full of such promise could be ripped from their midst, in an accident seemingly born of fate itself. Most of all, they came together to remember the Trinidads, a tightly-knit Teaneck family known for their caring spirit, drive and determination. Audie Trinidad, 61, and his four children, Kaitlyn, 20; Danna,17; and Melissa and Allison, 13-year-old twins, were killed in a multi-vehicle-crash Friday night in Delaware. The lone survivor was Trinidad's wife and mother to the children, Mary Rose Ballocanag. The 53-year-old women underwent surgery for multiple injuries and was in serious condition in a Delaware hospital on Saturday night. The family was returning home from vacation on Friday when its 1999 Toyota Sienna collided with a heavy-duty pickup truck that crossed the grassy median on Highway 1 in Delaware, authorities said. Delaware State Police said a Ford F-350 crossed the median and struck another car before it collided with their minivan. Audie Trinidad was driving with Ballocanag in the passenger seat and the couple's children were in the rear of the vehicle. Authorities have said the children were not wearing seat belts. The cause of the accident remains under investigation. No charges have been announced by authorities. Teaneck Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin spoke during the vigil, calling on the community to rally around the family during this time of tragedy. "Everyone that I knew who went to high school and middle school with them, I can see that they were a part of the Teaneck family. They touched our lives in many ways," the mayor said. Indeed, the community was quick to come together in support of the family, raising more than $56,000 in just one day. The vigil was organized by friends of the family, including Anthony Harley-Curtis, who lit candles center stage at Votee Park in memory of Danna, his high school friend. “She was a caring person," Harley-Curtis said. "She put others before herself.” The candles were arranged to spell the family's name on the stage. Marisol Urena, a Spanish teacher at Teaneck High school, was fighting back tears. "I had all of them," she said of the four children who were her pupils through the years. “It’s terrible.” Story continues below gallery “I taught the twins this year and last year,” said Sue Jacobs, a teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. "They were the sweetest girls you could ever know. They were very smart and they were very hardworking. They were lovely young ladies." Tragedy:Teaneck family loses father, 4 daughters in crash as they return from vacation Father, immigrant, veteran:Teaneck man killed in crash had an American story Nicole Yildirin, 14, said she's known Melissa and Allison since preschool, and they were going to play volleyball together this year. "We were the best of friends. Even if we had a fight we were still together," Yildirin said. "We went to each other's houses and practiced volleyball. We were actually supposed to practice next week." Grief and shock Trinidad and Ballocanag were from the Philippines and met in New York after coming to the United States in the 1980s. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Trinidad worked as a postal worker in the Bronx. Ballocanag is a nurse at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. Kaitlyn, who went by Nikki, was a student at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx. Her 17-year-old sister, Danna, was a junior at Teaneck High School. The twins, Melissa and Allison, attended Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Teaneck. Teaneck's Sebastian Yepez said he knew all four of the girls. "Since first grade I grew up with Melissa and Allison," he said. "They were so nice, very smart and very caring." Danny Trinidad, Audie's brother, spent Saturday struggling to deal with the loss of so many and preparing for a trip to Delaware, where Mary Rose was recovering. "This is like a tragedy a hundred times over," he said Email: myers@northjersey.com<doc-sep>TEANECK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Charges had not been filed as of Monday for the tragic car crash that killed five members of a family from New Jersey. What caused a pickup truck driver to cross a center median in Delaware Friday before slamming into the family’s minivan? The Trinidads of Teaneck were as tight as a family could be. The four beautiful sisters were inseparable in life, and tragically so in death. “As a mother, the first thing you do is hug your kids because you don’t want anything like that to ever happen,” said Teaneck resident Paula Millan. The family was headed home from a vacation in Ocean City, Maryland on Friday when a pickup truck travelling in the wrong direction on Route 1 in Delaware collided with their minivan, killing 61-year-old Audi Trinidad and his daughters — Kaitlyn, 20, Danna, 17, and 13-year-old twins Melissa and Allison. Their mother, Mary Rose, was the only one to survive. The pickup hit Brian Kerns’ car right before the Trinidads’. He suffered only minor injuries. “I had gotten out and looked behind me and it sort of looked like a war zone,” said Kerns. “I heard about what happened to the family and I was sitting there in the emergency room and my heart was just pouring out to them.” Friends and loved ones are rallying to support Mary Rose Ballocanag while she recovers and lives with the unthinkable loss. Her daughter Kaitlyn was studying to be a nurse, the twins thrived in the arts, and friends say Danna was an honor student who selflessly helped others in need. “I would be falling behind and struggling and it was kind of obvious,” Danna’s friend, Armando Desequeira, said. “She’d just go, ‘Hey, this is the answer I’ll explain to you’.” Funeral arrangements were still pending as the family awaited the arrival of relatives coming from the Philippines. Meanwhile, grief counselors were being made available at Teaneck High School through Friday.<doc-sep>TOWNSEND, Del. (CBSNewYork/AP) — New Jersey man and his four daughters were killed Friday in a violent multi-vehicle crash on a Delaware highway, according to state police. The crash occurred around 3:45 p.m. on Route 1, the state’s major north-south artery, near Townsend. State Police M. Cpl. Melissa Jaffe said that a southbound pickup truck crossed the median and struck a northbound passenger car. She said the car came to rest on the median, while the pickup truck continued to travel southbound in the northbound lanes and hit a minivan carrying the New Jersey family of six. The two occupants of the pickup truck and the single occupant of the car were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A family spokesperson tells CBS Philly the father, 61-year-old man Audie Trinidad, and his daughters Kaitlyn, 20, Danna, 17, Melissa, 13, and Allison, also 13, were all pronounced dead at the scene. Trinidad’s wife and the girls’ mother, 53-year-old Mary Rose, was transported to an area hospital after suffering serious but non-life threatening injuries. The family was headed home to Teaneck from a holiday getaway in Ocean City, Maryland when the trip turned tragic, CBS2’s Liza Rozner reported. “I feel so bad for this family,” Jaffe said. “I cannot imagine what they’re going through. The father’s brother and girls’ uncle flew to New Jersey from Miami. “Blink of an eye, lost everything. My brother is a fun-loving family man, he loves his nice family. That’s why they all go out during summer break, he takes his kids out wherever they want to go, and this is what happens,” Danny Trinidad said. He said the family lived in Teaneck for more than 20 years. The father was an usher at the Church of Anastasia, where the family regularly attended services. “Couple tears went down my face. I was actually at work this morning, and I just can’t believe it,” said neighbor Juan Gomez. “Ever since 2006 when I moved over here, we’ve always been friends, always together. So I’ve known them very well.” Gomez said he grew up with the oldest daughter Kaitlyn, who was entering her junior year studying nursing at the College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx. “Very loving, her dad was very nice, he would always really care about them,” he added. “They were an amazing family to me and they always were there for me and stuff. Like whenever I cam to their house, they would always provide food for me and stuff,” said friend Laysha Stengeo. “I’m very thankful for them.” “Nice, hardworking, friendly, people you’d want to have as your neighbors, decent people, church-going,” neighbor Leslie Peterson added. The Filipino American Society organized a vigil for the family Saturday night at Votee Park, and a GoFundMe page was set up for the mother. “They are very good kids,” their grandmother said. “It’s OK to look and ask questions where there are no answers,” Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin told the crowd. “Hug your children, hug your friends, love each other.” “(Danna) was just an amazing young lady. National Honor Society, we just inducted her. She was a amazing young lady. She was a member of the volleyball team, the softball team, very active,” said Teaneck High School Dean of Students Olivia Betances. Delaware State Police said the father, who was driving, and the mother, in the front passenger seat, were wearing their seat belts, but the girls in the back were not. Photographs from the scene showed a blue tarp covering a white passenger vehicle with massive front-end-damage. The vehicle’s roof appeared to have been cut off by rescue workers and was lying upside down on the ground nearby. A few feet away was a maroon extended-cab pickup truck, which appeared to be a commercial vehicle, with its passenger side caved in. Dozens of emergency personnel responded to the scene as authorities worked to clear debris, The News Journal of Wilmington reported . Charles “C.R.” McLeod, a spokesman for the Delaware Department of Transportation, said Route 1 was closed in both directions for 17 miles for hours after the crash. The cause of the crash is under investigation. So far, no charges have been filed. (© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)<doc-sep>
From left to right: Audie Trinidad, Danna, Kaitlyn, Melissa, Allison A community turning out to Votee Park in Teaneck, NJ for family killed by wrong way driver in Delaware. Father and his 4 daughters were killed. Their mother was the sole survivor. pic.twitter.com/kBcNWajQhD — CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) July 8, 2018 EMBED >More News Videos CeFaan Kim has more from the emotional vigil in Teaneck. TOWNSEND, Delaware -- A New Jersey man and his four daughters were killed in a crash on Friday afternoon in Townsend, Delaware, but the man's wife survived.The family members were from Teaneck, New Jersey, police say. The father, Audie Trinidad, was 61 years old, and his children include 20-year-old Kaitlyn, 17-year-old Danna and two 14-year-olds, Melissa and Allison.The girls' 53-year-old mother and Audie's wife, Mary Rose Trinidad, survived the crash and was taken to Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, with serious injuries.The Teaneck community turned out to mourn the family on Saturday night during a vigil at Votee Park.The husband and wife were properly restrained in the vehicle, police say, but their four daughters were not. "To lose four children in a crash ... it's just unheard of," Delaware State Police Master Corporal Melissa Jaffe said.Sources tell Eyewitness News Audie Trinidad was a postal worker and Mary Rose is a nurse at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. The oldest daughter, Kaitlyn, was a nursing student at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx.The crash happened just before 4 p.m. on Route 1 near Pine Tree Road.Police say a southbound Ford F-350 pickup truck crossed the median and struck a northbound car, causing it to spin out of control.The car came to rest on the median, while the pickup truck continued to travel southbound in the northbound lanes and was hit by the Toyota Sienna minivan carrying the New Jersey family. "I feel so bad for this family. I cannot imagine what they are going through," said Jaffe.The driver of the pickup, 44-year-old Alvin Hubbard Jr., of East New Market, Maryland, was treated and released from the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police say it is not yet known if impairment was a factor.A passenger in the truck, a 30-year-old man from Hurlock, Maryland, was also treated and released.The driver of the car, a 24-year-old man from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was taken to the hospital where he was treated and released.Northbound Route 1 was shut down in the area of the crash for five hours, but all lanes have since reopened.Police are interviewing all of the survivors as the investigation into this crash continues.There is no word on if charges will be filed. A GoFundMe page was set up to support Mary Rose Trinidad.----------