A 16-year-old junior from Middletown High School North was killed when a car in which she was a passenger with four other teenagers crashed into a light stanchion near Brunswick Square Mall in East Brunswick Saturday night, today’s Asbury Park Press reports.

Dana Centanni of Lincroft was pronounced dead at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick shortly after the accident, which occurred at about 8:20p, police said.

Lindsay Capatasto, a 16-year-old girl from the Belford section of Middletown sustained serious internal injuries and was in critical condition last night, the Press reports.

The 2003 Toyota’s driver, 17-year-old Jason Stein, suffered a concussion but was released from the hospital that night, the Press says. The Star-Ledger says he’s an East Brunswick resident.

Megan Greene, 16, of the Port Monmouth section and Nicole Spinelli, 16, also of Middletown
were listed as having sustained injuries that were not life-threatening and were also discharged from the hospital on Saturday.

Police say Stein lost control of the vehicle while traveling along Summerhill Road. The car then slid sideways into a curb and into the pole.

Neither alcohol nor drugs appear to have been involved, the Ledger reports.

From the Press:

Dana Centanni’s father, Fiore “Floyd” Centanni, said his daughter had many friends. He described her as an outgoing person who always seemed happy.

“She was always helpful to her friends,” he said. “She was a very good student. She got straight A’s,” her father said. His daughter loved to sing and dance, enjoyed going on water rides and liked a good joke, he said.

The Ledger says Centanni

spent the summer working at an Italian ice shop to save for her first car, a 1996 Chrysler convertible. When the seasons turned, she took a new job at a supermarket. And, as the weeks inched toward her Nov. 5 birthday, she eagerly marked the time on her mental calendar.

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