What to Know
- Five people were killed when three cars and a truck collided on Long Island
- Four of the victims were in one car, which burst into flames during the crash; their identities have not been released
- Police said one of the sedans was stolen; a person in that car was also killed
Five people are dead after four vehicles collided in a fiery crash involving an oil truck and a stolen car on Long Island Wednesday morning, police said.
The driver of the stolen car caused the violent crash, which completely destroyed two sedans and heavily damaged a third sedan and an oil truck, according to Suffolk County police.
Pieces of the vehicles still littered the roadway hours after they collided on Route 25 in Ridge shortly before 11:30 a.m.
A woman whose car was involved in the crash said one of the cars crossed the center line before overturning and bursting into flames, according to a witness named Loretta Burns.
“She said she was just driving. A car careened over into her lane,” Burns said. “Somehow she got hit in the back and the car like flipped and went on fire.”
Burn said she saw a man trying to rescue the driver from the burning car but that there was “just too much of a fire” and he couldn’t be saved.
Local
All four people in the burning car were killed, police said.
The driver of the stolen car, 23-year-old Jamel Turner was injured, according to police. His passenger, 19-year-old Lonidell Skinner, died. It wasn’t immediately clear if the theft of the car played a role in the crash; police said they don't believe the vehicle was being pursued at the time.
A person in a third sedan was not injured, police said, while the driver of the oil truck suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Video from the scene shows firefighters hosing down the smoking, charred wreckage of a car as police investigate on a road littered with auto parts and debris.
Neither the names nor ages of the victims have been released.
Several family members said they were related to a teenage male who was killed in the stolen car. The teen’s mother had to be restrained by police after she tried to reach the crash site.
Police continued to investigate at the scene after sunset as a stretch of Route 25 remained closed.
