The driver of an SUV was killed early Saturday morning when his vehicle struck two cars and slammed into a house in New Jersey, investigators said.
The driver, identified by family as Diego Maldonato, was pinned in the SUV which flipped over. It took emergency responders nearly six hours to remove his body from the wreckage.
Two passengers in his vehicle were injured and taken to a local hospital. Information about their condition wasn't available.
The accident took place around 4 a.m. on East 21st Avenue in Paterson, the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office said in a release.
Witnesses said the SUV was driving along East 21st Street when it collided with another car at the intersection at 21st Avenue. It then crashed into a parked car and then flipped over.
Several relatives said Maldonato was the only son in the family. He had recently purchased the SUV, they said.
“I guess the reason it flipped over is because he went into the house and it flipped over,” Maldonado’s friend to NBC 4 New York. “He was a great guy, he was a hard worker.”
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“I heard brakes. That's what I first heard and then I feel the impact in the house,” said Angie Anna Gayle, who lives in the home.
Gayle said she doesn’t know if she can continue living in the house because she will constantly be reminded of the sound of the car crashing into the residence.
