Twin brothers killed when their car hits tree in West Seneca
Thomas and Mark Sokolowski were born two minutes apart on June 25, 1991. For more than 17 years, the twin sons and only children of Polish immigrants to Western New York were inseparable.
Late Friday morning, they tragically died together in a horrific single-car crash on Main Street in West Seneca.
Known for their self-acclaimed “million dollar legs,” they won dozens of trophies for their exploits on area soccer fields. They were on their way back from a soccer event when their 1993 Honda Civic was destroyed after hitting a mature horse chestnut tree at 527 Main.
“They didn’t live without each other and they died together — cradle to grave,” said Nicole Zizzi, 16, a longtime friend who gathered with other friends from their neighborhood to mourn and comfort each other.
The twins were weeks shy of starting their senior year at West Seneca East High School.
The crash occurred after the driver of the Civic failed in an attempt to pass another car across a double-yellow line about 11:40 a. m., lost control of the car and drove into the tree, according to West Seneca Police Chief Edward F. Gehen.
Police were still piecing together details of the crash, including who was driving the car.
“What we do know from several witnesses is this vehicle was passing another vehicle and, as it was returning to its lane, it lost control, went off the road and struck the tree,” Gehen said.
The passenger was ejected from the vehicle, which was obliterated from the impact, and came to rest at the side of the car. The force of the impact split the front seat down the middle, pinning the driver inside. Neighbors who witnessed or heard the crash immediately rushed to the scene.
“I heard the screech and the crash,” said Alex Peters, 18, who had been having breakfast across the street. “I came running outside and saw all the neighbors running. I heard someone saying, ‘Stay with us, stay with us.’ ”
Tracy Wisner, a neighbor and preschool teacher who was home at the time of the crash, was among the first on scene. She immediately started CPR on the passenger.
“If it was my kid, I would hope someone would have done that,” Wisner said later. “My heart goes out to the parents. I can’t imagine.”
At dusk Friday, Main Street neighbors, still shocked by the double fatality, consoled each other near the crash site.
A long pair of dark skid marks cut across the road and some grass before abruptly ending at the base of the tree, where its bark was stripped bare in places by the impact.
Mourners visited the site. Some knelt to pray. Others laid roses or teddy bears at a growing memorial. About the same time, dozens of friends and neighbors converged around the boys’ Brentwood Drive home to comfort each other and the family.
Zizzi and other teenage friends mourned together in a nearby backyard, trading their favorite memories of the twin brothers they’d grown up with in the neighborhood.
It was only a day earlier that the twins — full of life and potential — had frolicked with them at Darien Lake. The amusement park was a place the brothers loved winning large teddy bears, friends recalled.
In an ironic twist, said one, they’d joked Thursday about skydiving and bungee jumping — the day before they died.
“It just doesn’t seem real yet,” said 16-year-old friend Kim Kucharski. “You can’t just talk about one of them — it was always ‘Mark and Tom.’ ”
Both were remembered as extraordinarily skilled athletes, especially at hockey and soccer. In addition to playing for their high school team, they also played on the Buffalo United Soccer Club and for an area Polish soccer team.
“They always said their legs were ‘worth a million dollars,’ ” said Krystyna Oles, 14.
The Sokolowski twins each had a great sense of humor, their friends said, and both were big fans of the Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bills and “Halo,” a video game on the Xbox 360 system. The close-knit group of friends frequently “camped out” together in backyard tents.
Thomas was always proud he was “two minutes older,” the friends recalled. He planned to pursue criminal justice after high school at the University at Buffalo with hopes of one day becoming a police officer.
Mark, friends recalled, simply wanted to “be rich and have a lot of cars.”
A candlelight vigil for the twin brothers was held Friday night at the crash site.
