![\"Mullica](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GZGLLL3HZZFNTJXSA3JWJAI2WY.JPG\")
An SUV lost control and crashed into a Banff Drive home in Mullica Hill, Harrison Township, causing the home to catch fire on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. Two people were killed in the crash.Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media<\/p>\nA beloved high school sports coach and his wife were killed Saturday evening after he lost control of an SUV and crashed into a home in his Gloucester County neighborhood, sparking a fire, police said.<\/p>\n
Authorities were dispatched to Banff Drive in the Mullica Hill section of Harrison Township around 6:17 p.m., Harrison Police Chief Ronald Cundey said.<\/p>\n
The driver, Thomas Hengel, 72, and the passenger, Lisa Hengel, 61, died at the scene.<\/p>\n
The Hengels lived next door to the home their vehicle struck, property records show.<\/p>\n
Those inside the home were uninjured, Cundey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe family whose home it was, by the grace of God, was not in that front living room at the time where the vehicle crashed into,\u201d Cundey said. \u201cThey were in their kitchen eating dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n
An SUV lost control and crashed into a Banff Drive home in Mullica Hill, Harrison Township, causing the home to catch fire on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. Two people were killed in the crash.Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media<\/p>\n
Authorities said a 2020 Hyundai Palisade SUV was traveling north on Banff Drive when it quickly accelerated for an unknown reason, struck a curb, traveled across two front yards and crashed into the residence.<\/p>\n
The crash caused a fire that engulfed the vehicle and spread rapidly throughout the home, but crews extinguished the blaze, police said.<\/p>\n
The house sustained significant structural damage and is currently uninhabitable, officials said.<\/p>\n
Cundey said investigators are trying to determine what caused Thomas Hengel to lose control of the vehicle, but the crash is not believed to involve criminal activity and appears to be an accident. <\/p>\n
Multiple agencies assisted at the scene.<\/p>\n
Thomas Hengel was an accomplished coach who began his career at Clearview Regional High School in 1981, leading teams in cross country, track, basketball and baseball, according to The Sun Newspapers<\/a>. Hengel, a retired teacher, was inducted into the Gloucester County Sport Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2018 and was named NJ.com\u2019s Girls Cross-Country Coach of the Year<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n![\"Mullica](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SZNGJZCFOBGTDJSKZMVPPDWWEU.JPG\")
An SUV lost control and crashed into a Banff Drive home in Mullica Hill, Harrison Township, causing the home to catch fire on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. Two people were killed in the crash.Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beloved high school sports coach and his wife were killed Saturday evening after he lost control of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-416297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}