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It could not have taken more than a few terrifying seconds from the moment the S.U.V.'s driver lost control on an elevated highway on Sunday to the moment it came to a violent rest about 60 feet below, in a nonpublic area of the Bronx Zoo . The vehicle's seven occupants, spanning three generations of a Bronx family, were killed on impact, their bodies still inside.
Investigators at the scene of a crash that killed seven people in the Bronx.
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
Published: April 29, 2012
Multimedia
Graphic Multiple Deaths in a Bronx Accident
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Marcus Yam for The New York Times
Juan Gonzalez, wearing a green shirt, whose wife, Maria, was driving the S.U.V. on Sunday, outside his Bronx home with Ms. Gonzalez's son Jonel, wearing a yellow sweatshirt.
Marcus Yam for The New York Times
At the site where an S.U.V. landed Sunday after falling off the Bronx River Parkway, police collect evidence from the accident.
Outside the S.U.V., scattered in the shade of a late April sun, were the remnants of what had been: a workbook from St. Lucy's School in the Bronx, a leather purse, a diaper bag, a DVD from the Hellboy fantasy series — all spread out next to the S.U.V., its damaged frame and its occupants turned upside down.
About 20 yards to the east and 20 yards above, on an overpass of the Bronx River Parkway, not as many signs of the horrifying accident were evident, but what was left was still telling: a clean trail of skid marks that cut straight across three southbound lanes, leading toward a guardrail that separated the parkway from the earth and streets below.
The guardrail bore no scars from the S.U.V., for there was no impact; police investigators said the driver had lost control, and the vehicle first struck a Jersey barrier at the center median, and then veered sharply to the right, hitting a curb that propelled it directly over the guardrail.
Police Highway Patrol investigators did detect oil on the guardrail, which had dripped down from the S.U.V. "as it sailed over the railing and down to the ground," said Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department.
The S.U.V., after falling dozens of feet, landed at the southeast corner of the 265-acre property, far from where animals are kept and visitors are allowed. All seven people in the S.U.V. were killed: two grandparents who had been visiting from the Dominican Republic, their two adult daughters and three grandchildren, ages 10, 7 and 3. Everyone had been wearing a seat belt, the police said.
It was the deadliest accident in New York City since March 2011, when a bus heading to Chinatown from the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut crashed on Interstate 95 in the Bronx.
"Sometimes you come upon events that are horrific, and this is one of them," Deputy Chief Ronald Werner of the Fire Department, said at a brief news conference less than three hours after the accident.
The 45-year-old adult daughter was at the wheel of the S.U.V., a white 2004 Honda Pilot, and in the hours after the crash, it was still unclear what had led her to initially lose control of the vehicle, the police said.
Witnesses told the police that it appeared that a tire had blown, although accident investigators were not certain of that, a law enforcement official said, noting that there were no obvious signs of skid marks before the car first hit the Jersey barrier.
Accident investigators estimated that the S.U.V. was traveling at around 70 miles per hour when it lost control, the official said.
Some information about the victims emerged late Sunday.
The driver's 10-year-old daughter was among them. Another, Maria Nunez, the driver's 39-year-old sister, was the mother of the two younger girls in the S.U.V., Niely Rosario, 7, and Marly Rosario, 3.
The oldest passengers were Jacob Nunez, 85, and his wife, Ana Julia Martinez, 81. Naomi Velazquez, 28, who lived in the Nunezes' building, said that the older couple had just arrived from the Dominican Republic on Thursday, and that it was only the second time they had visited New York.
Ms. Nunez had lived in the Pelham Parkway Houses for over a decade, Ms. Velazquez said, describing the family as a "great, great family," adding that Ms. Nunez was "really quiet."
"I can't believe it," Ms. Velazquez said. "I'm in shock."
The driver was identified as Maria Gonzalez, and at her two-story, two-family home on Taylor Avenue, neighbors, friends and relatives gathered to mourn the loss of a mother and her daughter, Jocelyn Gonzalez, 10.
"They're lost right now," Jahny Jimenez, 29, said after emerging from the house. "They're asking God for strength."
Mr. Jimenez, who identified himself as a distant cousin of those killed, said that the "family is huge and we support each other."
Another cousin, Marcello Alvarez, described Ms. Gonzalez's husband, Juan, as being "broken."
"Can you imagine?" he said. "They are in a lot of pain. They lost a whole family in one hit."
In the hours after the crash, the dead were taken to Jacobi Medical Center to be identified by relatives. The S.U.V. was taken from the area on a flatbed truck, the wreckage covered by a green tarp.
A similar accident occurred nearby last June on the northbound lanes of the Bronx River Parkway, raising questions about whether the guardrails are too low to be effective.
In that accident, a car had struck the median, turned away from it and "sailed into the air," falling 30 or so feet onto East 180th Street, according to a report about the accident in The New York Post. The car's two occupants, one of whom was a local politician, survived.
"For the second time in a year, an accident on the Bronx River Parkway has led to a car falling off the highway to the streets below," the Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., said in a statement.
John DeSio, a spokesman for Mr. Diaz, said that after the first accident, there was "some thought that it's a freak occurrence."
"But," he added, "it has happened again. So we'll be speaking to the appropriate agencies and examining whether appropriate safety measures, such as higher fences and guardrails, should be taken."
Adam Levine, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, which is responsible for the Bronx River Parkway, said, "We're going to do our investigation into this accident and see if anything needs to be done to improve the safety of the area."
Randy Leonard and Bernard Vaughan contributed reporting.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 30, 2012
Because of an editing error, a previous version of this article misspelled a neighbor's surname as Velasquez.
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