A mother and her 1- and 2-year-old children were critically injured and seven others were hurt after the car they were in crashed into a tree in Newark, N.J., early Monday.
All 10 victims were trapped in the vehicle after it smashed into a tree on Irvine Turner Boulevard at about 1:30 a.m., police said.
"It was holy hell out here at 1:30 in the morning," said neighbor Janette McCoy.
"They were running across the street to me and asking me, 'Please help me, please help,'" she said.
"She had a baby in her arms," she said, referring to the mother. "She was so bloody."
Police said the Dodge Neon was turning down Irvin Turner Boulevard when the driver lost control and slammed into a tree.
Firefighters pulled the victims out of the mangled car.
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"I saw the motor on the sidewalk over there, the bumper was over there, the dashboard was over there," said McCoy. "One of the babies was laying in the street over there. She had one baby in her arm."
Along with the mother and her two young children, a 17-year-old boy was critically hurt. The four were being treated at the hospital for what police described as life-threatening injuries.
A 31-year-old man in the car was in stable condition, and five other children were discharged from the hospital.
Authorities are trying to determine why so many people were packed into a small car, and why the driver lost control.
--Sheldon Dutes and Ida Siegal contributed to this story
