{"id":108402,"date":"2026-02-08T12:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/108402\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T12:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:43:11","slug":"friends-roommates-honor-evan-gingo-the-18-year-old-killed-in-25-vehicle-crash-on-interstate-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/108402\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends, roommates honor Evan Gingo, the 18-year-old killed in 25-vehicle crash on Interstate 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a chaotic and deadly day on Friday in Butler County when a 25-vehicle crash sent nine people to the hospital and left one person dead<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deceased was identified as 18-year-old Evan Gingo, a Pittsburgh native and student at Slippery Rock University. As the Pennsylvania State Police continue their investigation into the crash, those who knew Gingo couldn’t speak highly enough of the first-year student.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gingo was heading northbound on I-79 on his way back to Slippery Rock when the crash happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He loved with all of his heart, he really did, and he showed that every single day,” said Madison Prince, Gingo’s girlfriend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“His personality was the goofiest ever,” added Chris Williamson, Gingo’s roommate. “He never failed to put a smile on someone’s face.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Williamson and Prince said that it was a day they never imagined. When the news broke, they both left campus and tried to process the loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Saturday, while visiting Slippery Rock, it was clear Gingo was deeply loved as his friends showed up in droves to speak his name and honor his memory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He lit up every room he was in,” said Patrick Klesser. “Always made his presence known, and that he was there for us, a great guy to be around.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He just made sure you were having a good time as well,” added Noah Fleming. “You could be upset or anything, having a bad day, he was going to make you laugh no matter what.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gingo was just 18 and beginning his adult life. His friends said that Evan loved just being silly with friends, gaming, fitness, and sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He loved soccer, soccer was his main thing,” said Prince.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The loss was felt far and wide as the person everyone turned to for a smile is now gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Words can’t really describe how I feel right now,” said Colton Boyer. “It just hit me all at once. Really hard to process.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The university is offering counseling services to any student who may need them, as Gingo has now become the second student this year who lost their life on I-79 due to winter weather conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a chaotic and deadly day on Friday in Butler County when a 25-vehicle crash sent nine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1540,6977,3568,73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-108402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-car-crash","9":"tag-fatal-crash","10":"tag-i-79","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}