HOWELL — Two days before a fatal collision claimed his life, 19-year-old Randall Arvai and his friend Vinny Zhao rode their motorcycles down County Road 537, exploring the area, not realizing it could be one of their last rides together.

At about 8:57 p.m. Friday Arvai's 2009 Yamaha motorcycle collided with a 2001 Lexus, driven by Robert Hanlon Sr., 76, of Brick, that was turning right out of Mulligan's restaurant near Hurley Pond Road. Arvai was ejected from the motorcycle, according to the Asbury Park Press. The Manalapan teen was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, the article states.

Toxicology tests are pending, although alcohol is not suspected as a cause of the crash, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office told the Asbury Park Press.

Before learning of the fatal crash, Zhao, 21, a friend and neighbor of Arvai's for about nine years, said he was home cooking when Arvai's girlfriend, Nicole Rivelli and his mother, Renata Kravitsky, both reached out to him in a panic. They hadn't heard from Arvai and he was expected home. He and his girlfriend were planning to celebrate their nine-month anniversary, Zhao said.

Having driven motorcycles with his neighbor for years, Zhao took Arvai's mom and girlfriend to some of the areas where he thought he might have been that day. It wasn't long into the search before police contacted Renata with the devastating news, Zhao said.

"Randall Arvai was not only loved by his family, but by the people he met in his short journey of 19 years," Zhao said in a post on the GoFundMe page he created to help the family pay for funeral expenses.

Zhao described his friend as being full of life and an avid lover of go-kart racing.

"He loved racing. Everyone knows him for being a go-kart racer," Zhao said.

In fact, his friend said, Arvai has won races as far away as Florida and Europe, where his biological father Kalman Arvai resides. He especially loved Nascar and Formula One racing.

Exactly three months before his tragic death, Arvai shared a NJ 101.5 story to his Facebook page about another 19-year-old motorcyclist from Jamesburg, who was killed in a motor vehicle collision with an 82-year-old woman. Arvai shared the story with the hashtags #RIP and #bikelife. He also shared stories about other teenage motorcyclists and racers who died in tragic crashes.

Zhao said his friend's death is devastating to the Arvai family, especially the teen's mom, who many knew from her job at the Dunkin Donuts in Englishtown.

According to his obituary, Arvai was born in New York and has lived in Manalapan for 10 years. He graduated from Manalapan High School in 2014 and briefly attended Brookdale Community College.

Services for Arvai will take place beginning on Monday, with visitation from 5 to 8 p.m. at Freeman Manalapan-Marlboro Funeral Home, 344 Route 9 North in Manalapan. A funeral mass will take place Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Our Lady of Mercy, Englishtown with burial to follow at Old Tennant Cemetery, also in Manalapan.

Toniann Antonelli is a social content producer for NJ 101.5. She can be reached at toniann.antonelli@townsquaremedia.com, or on Twitter @ToniRadio1015.

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