Jason Trinca: Son's recovery a 'miracle'

Amid his grief, Jason Trinca, whose wife and 7-year-old son were killed and two youngest children injured in a Manorville car crash last week, tearfully embraced his surviving son Friday and called the boy's recovery "a miracle."

Trinca, addressing family and friends at Stony Brook University Medical Center on Friday, read from a prepared statement: "I would like to show you what all the positive thoughts and prayers can do to make a miracle happen."

He then embraced his son Christopher -- who had noticeable facial bruising and a bandage on his forehead -- and said, "I still need to get upstairs back to my daughter who drastically needs me."

Though daughter Maria, 4, is improving, "she still has a ways to go in her recovery," said Dr. Margaret Parker, head of the hospital's pediatric intensive-care unit. Citing the family's privacy, she wouldn't reveal the children's precise injuries. She said Maria has been sedated since the accident. Christopher, who was being released from the hospital Friday, is "doing very well," Parker said.

Keri Trinca, 30, was driving a 1998 Honda Accord near her Manorville home on Oct. 8 about 8:25 a.m. when she apparently was broadsided by a van at the intersection of County Road 111 and Montauk Avenue, off Oceanview Boulevard, Suffolk County police said. The car, with her three children in the backseat, was struck by a 2002 Ford E350 van headed south on County Road 111. Keri Trinca was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Her son, Jason, 7, died at Peconic Bay Medical Center.

Police said the van driver, Steven Vonfricken, 51, of St. James, and his passenger, Edward James, 61, of Smithtown, were taken to Peconic and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. No one has been charged, and the investigation is ongoing. Vonfricken hasn't returned Newsday's phone calls.

Jason Trinca wore a T-shirt bearing his eldest son's No. 48 and the names of his son and wife. The younger Jason was an avid racer, driving a No. 48 go-kart at Riverhead Raceway. Keri Trinca and her children were headed for the raceway when the crash took place.

"Without the constant support of my family and friends, I am not sure how I would be dealing with this right now," Jason Trinca said. "Although Christopher's recovery is a miracle, we still need just as many thoughts and prayers for my daughter."

Parker said she didn't think the recovering children were aware of the losses of their mother and brother. In her sedated state, Maria is probably unaware, and "I think Christopher is probably too young to understand what happened," she said.

Keri Trinca's cousin, Danielle Chavez, 35, said she hoped Christopher didn't remember anything about the accident. "Hopefully, he can just get back to being 2," she said. Maria is likely to need rehab, she said, adding: "She's not out of the woods by any means."