TRAGIC GRUDGE FIX
Three NJ pals died after get-together to end feud
The three young women who died in a weekend car crash in New Jersey had gotten together for a high-school reunion — and were trying to mend a rift between two of them, grieving relatives told The Post on Sunday.
Michaela Powell, 23, had helped organize the ill-fated outing for a tight group of Franklin HS alums partly because one of their other pals, a member of the military, was being deployed next month, according to her mother, Linda.
But Michaela also was trying to play peacemaker between feuding buddies Brianna Martinez, 23, and Uchechukw “Uche” Chukwuma, 24, Linda Powell said.
“Brianna and Uche were on the outs, and [Michaela] wanted to get them together,” the mom said.
Michaela apparently succeeded in healing the old wounds before the three Somerset County friends died in the tragedy on Route 1 in Woodbridge.
Minutes before their car crashed, one of the women posted an online video clip that showed them smiling inside the vehicle.
“Started the decade together. End it together,” a caption read.
The women were in Martinez’s Nissan Altima when the car rearended a tractor-trailer near Ford Avenue, just south of the entrance to the Garden State Parkway north, as the truck was pulling away from a stoplight at around 11:50 p.m. on Friday, according to Woodbridge police.
Emergency crews worked to free the women from their vehicle, which was wedged underneath the tractor-trailer when authorities arrived, the Woodbridge Patch reported.
Michaela and Chukwuma were pronounced dead at the scene, while Martinez was rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where she died of her injuries, officials said.
Police were still working Sunday to determine what led to the late-night wreck.
The three women had been celebrating at the Stage House Tavern in Somerset and moved on to a venue in New Brunswick before the collision, CBS2 reported.
Other videos posted on social media showed the women drinking, dancing and toasting one another before the crash.
Linda Powell said that since the tragedy, she has been unable to enter the bedroom of her daughter, whom she had adopted as an infant.
“I’ve been up for the last 24 hours. It’s been hard,” the mom told The Post.
Michaela had a “special love of animals” and left behind her beloved pooch, Molly, whom the family adopted from Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue in Pennsylvania, the mom said.
“Last night, every time a car came down the street, Molly would get excited and look at me as if she was asking, ‘Is that her? Is she home?’ ” Linda Powell said.
“But Michaela’s car is in the driveway.”
Linda said her daughter had been living at home since recently graduating from Montclair State University with a psychology degree.
Chukwuma was a Syracuse University grad on her way to becoming a lawyer, while Martinez hoped to be a teacher.
Michaela wanted to go to graduate school and had set her sights on becoming a school counselor, her mom said.
“She was really good at reading people. She would have made a really great counselor,” she said.