Holiday revelry turned into tragedy for a handsome Rutgers University business graduate who plunged his car into an icy canal in Jersey City and drowned in the predawn hours of New Year’s Day.
Mark Pych, 22, had just met with friends at a nearby club and was due to head home for a champagne toast, said family members.
Instead, he died inside his Nissan Altima after ramming the car through a metal barrier and into the Morris Canal near Liberty State Park, authorities said.
“My son is dead!” the young man’s bereft father told a neighbor who had unwittingly called out “Happy New Year” in front of the family’s Jersey City house hours after the body was pulled from the water.
“Mark, he is dead,” the dad, Wieslaw, 63, told the aghast neighbor of his son, who had only graduated last week. “He had an accident this morning. His car smashed into the water.
“He went out last night. He probably went to a club. This is his clothing,” the dad said, holding a bag. “This is bad. This is bad.”
Pych, the son of Polish immigrants, still lived in his family home up the street from Stcq. Ann Polish Church, where relatives said he was an altar server.
“He was such a good kid,” said family friend Daniel Darasz, 17.
“I’ve known him since he was young. He didn’t drink or anything.”
Pych had been a resident assistant at Rutgers, and was interning at a shipping firm, according to his LinkedIn page. He enjoyed comedic acting and competed in the International Thespian Festival in Nebraska in 2007, The Star-Ledger of Newark said.
Family members told the Jersey Journal that Pych had planned to begin looking for a job this month.
For New Year’s, though, he had simply been looking forward to a night out with pals. His plans included visiting a waterfront bar near where he perished, according to relatives quoted in the Jersey Journal.
“He was going to meet his friends to celebrate the new year,” the victim’s 17-year-old sister, Bernadette Pych, told the paper.
“We were just playing Fun Run on our phones last night,” she recalled sadly. “He loved to make jokes, and he was peaceful.”
Jersey City Police spokesman Bob McHugh told The Post that Pych’s car crashed through barricades at the end of Marin Boulevard before diving into the deep canal. He would not speculate on whether alcohol was involved.