Authorities have identified the three people killed when the stolen car they were in skidded off a road and crashed into an ice-cold pond on Long Island.
Joan Sanjuan, 29, of Central Islip, Adolph Ford, 46, of Roosevelt, and Donald Farr, 51, died at a hospital Sunday despite rescuers' efforts to resuscitate them after the car plunged into the frigid pond in Albertson.
Police say the 2010 Honda they were in had been reported stolen on Friday. A state trooper noticed the car, called back-up and started to follow it as it moved off the Northern State Parkway onto southbound Shelter Rock Road.
The trooper was waiting for additional patrols when he radioed to dispatch, "I think he spotted me," and the stolen car accelerated. It illegally passed several eastbound vehicles and tried to turn left onto Searingtown Road, but the driver lost control and the Honda veered off the road, through a fence and into the pond, which is about 10 feet deep, investigators say.
Additional details on the people who died weren't immediately available.
Damon Multani and Alex Stephen were driving behind the Honda when it crashed.
“He made a right turn and there was ice there and he just slid into the water,” Multani said.
“I was scared, I was definitely shocked when I saw him drive into the pond,” Stephen said.
Maty Fried said he was about to drive through the intersection near the pond when the stolen Honda skidded by, missing him by inches.
"If I didn't stop, I would be with them in the morgue," he said, still shaken up by the near-miss.
Fried recounted, "Another police came and all three of us were standing on the edge here saying, 'Come out, it doesn't pay to lose your life over a stolen car. Get out, get out, get out.'"
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"They couldn't hear under the water," said Fried. "But the officer was great and tried to do what he can."
Police said speed and unsafe tires were factors in the crash. It's not clear who stole the car.
