Three generations of a family died in a crash just a few miles from home when the SUV they were traveling in plunged more than 50 feet off a highway overpass and into a ravine on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo, killing all seven aboard, including three children.
Authorities were trying to determine what caused Sunday's accident that killed Jacob Nunez, 85, and Ana Julia Martinez, 81, both from the Dominican Republic, their daughters, Maria Gonzalez, 45, and Maria Nunez, 39, and three grandchildren. Police say Gonzalez was driving.
Her husband of 22 years, Juan Gonzalez, said in the five years Maria had her license she never had any incidents behind the wheel. The last time he spoke to his 10-year-old daughter, Jazlyn, one of the three children who died in the accident, she asked him to bring home milk, he said.
"I don't want to live anymore. I want to die," Juan Gonzalez said.
The other children who died were identified as Niely Rosario, 7, and Marly Rosario, 3, both daughters of Nunez.
Nunez's husband, Juan Ramon Rosario, said in Spanish Monday that he was numb.
His cousin, who translated, quoted him as saying, "He can't think, he can't feel ... It's like death."
The 2004 Honda Pilot was headed south on the Bronx River Parkway when it bounced off the median, crossed three southbound lanes and hit the curb, causing the vehicle to become airborne, continue over the guardrail and plunge 59 feet, police said.
Relatives said the grandparents had arrived from the Dominican Republic three days earlier. They had 13 children, six of whom live in the United States. They were headed to a family party when the accident occurred.
"Sometimes you come upon events that are horrific and this is one of them," FDNY deputy Chief Ronald Werner said shortly after the crash.
The cause of the crash, which happened around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, was unclear. A city official said the guardrail's height would be one of the safety issues investigated.
"Obviously, the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed," Werner said. "It hit something that caused it to become airborne."
The SUV landed in a wooded area on the edge of zoo property that's closed to the public and far from any animal exhibits, zoo spokeswoman Mary Dixon said. The vehicle lay mangled hours later, its right doors ripped off and strewn amid the trees along with items from the car. Next to the heavily wooded area are subway tracks and a train yard.
Werner said that it doesn't appear that any other vehicles were involved in the accident.
Police said all the victims were wearing seat belts.
The medical examiner's office said it expected to release the victims' causes of death on Monday.
Local
The accident was the second in the past year where a car fell off the same stretch of the Bronx River Parkway. Last June, the driver of an SUV heading north lost control and the SUV hit a divider, bounced through two lanes of traffic and fell 20 feet over a guardrail, landing on a pickup truck in a parking lot. The two people in the SUV were injured.
The wreck was the deadliest in New York City since the driver of a tour bus returning from a Connecticut casino in March 2011 lost control and slammed into a pole that sheared the bus nearly end to end, killing 14 passengers.
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