An 18-year-old aspiring artist was killed in a horrific smash-up when her drag-racing boyfriend lost control of his car and swerved into oncoming traffic in Yonkers yesterday, police said.
The body of Lital Gamliel was on its way to Israel for burial last night. Accompanying the teenager on her tragic final journey were her grieving mom, Ahuva, and her sister, Vikla.
“She was a wonderful child and a gifted artist,” said Dr. Elliot Spiegel, headmaster of the prestigious Solomon Schecter HS in Yonkers.
Gamliel, who specialized in ceramics, would have graduated this June and was planning to go to college next year to study art, he said.
“Her family is devastated,” Spiegel said after a memorial service at the school attended by about 300 people.
Gamliel’s classmate and best friend, Ilana Katz, at first couldn’t believe the terrible news.
“I thought it was a game, since it was April 1st,” she said. “Then I got phone calls from the school and I realized it wasn’t.”
She insisted her pal was not a risk taker.
“She was a person who just loved to have fun, not bad fun or anything like that,” Katz said.
“She was just a person who loved to enjoy her life. She thought life was very short and you should try to live your life to the fullest.
“Everyone wanted to hang out with her and talk to her all the time.”
She said Gamliel and her boyfriend had broken up, but recently got back together.
Katz, who attended the service, said, “Everyone missed her. Everyone, from the teachers to the students. People were crying, consoling each other and hugging.”
Gamliel had been in the passenger seat of her boyfriend’s car when he started racing with another car on Yonkers Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, cops said.
The street is known as a notorious drag strip.
The car in which Gamliel was riding crossed the lane into oncoming traffic and smashed into another vehicle not involved in the race, sources said.
Both drivers escaped with minor injuries.
“I heard a very long brake, very long, and then like an empty, hollow ‘boom!’ ” said witness Aileen Cinquemani. “It sounded like a body had been hit.”
Gamliel was trapped in the wreckage.
“The passenger side looked like it had imploded. It was totally caved in, crushed,” Cinquemani said. “She was still in there. There was no sign of life. You could see how she never moved.”
Cinquemani said Gamliel’s sobbing boyfriend watched her body being extricated from the wreck as friends tried to console him.
No charges were immediately filed against the boyfriend or the driver he was racing. Their names were withheld.