Up to seven occupants die as vehicle falls off overpass

As many as seven people were believed to have been killed yesterday after a vehicle they were in lost control and fell from a…

As many as seven people were believed to have been killed yesterday after a vehicle they were in lost control and fell from a Bronx River Parkway overpass, plunging 100ft, law enforcement officials said.

Three of the dead in the one-vehicle crash were children, said a spokesman for the fire department, Jim Long. All of the dead were believed to have been in the vehicle. The accident occurred at about 12.30pm on the southbound lanes of the parkway, just south of the Bronx Zoo.

A police spokesman said the vehicle was heading south in the passing lane when it lost control and struck the median; it then veered right across the other two southbound lanes and fell over a guard rail.

The vehicle fell about 100ft into a wooded area near the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s East 180th Street yard and maintenance shop, the police said. – (New York Times service)