Five people were killed in a two-vehicle smash-up early New Year’s Day on a stretch of the Cross Island Parkway in Queens dubbed by local residents as the “dead man’s curve,” authorities said.
The tragic wreck unfolded when a Mazda sedan heading north on the expressway “at a high rate of speed” rammed into a curb and overturned around 6 a.m., police sources said.
Then, a man driving a Honda in the same direction slammed into the Mazda near Exit 36S, cops and sources said.
Four adults inside the Mazda were thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene, according to authorities and sources.
The fifth occupant was discovered underneath the Mazda and also pronounced dead, police and sources said.
The sources said three of the occupants were between the ages of 23 and 33. The ages of the others were not immediately available.
The Honda driver was taken to New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital in stable condition, cops said.
“This is a dead man’s curve,” area resident Rod Snedecor told CBS-TV News. “It’s a tight curve, it’s always been. A lot of accidents.”
Another neighbor called the fatal wreck a “terrible tragedy.
“It’s always this area,” resident Mie DiMarco told the outlet. “Cars go around this bend so quickly and I don’t think that people realize how sharp of a turn, it really is.”
No arrests have been made, and the NYPD’s Collision Investigation Squad is probing the crash, authorities said.
The dangerous curve has taken lives before, according to news reports.
In April 2020, two motorcyclists were killed after failing to negotiate the turn in separate incidents just three days apart, the Queens Chronicle reported.
Kevin Stout, 57, was riding northbound near Exit 36S on April 28, 2020, when he lost control of his black Harey-Davidson, struck the median and was thrown to his death, according to the outlet.
Three days earlier, NYPD cop Richard Holt was riding to work when the back of his bike was clipped by a drag racing car, severely injuring him.
Holt was later pronounced dead at New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital, the outlet reported.
A third motorcyclist was killed at Exit 36 in June of 2018 when he was thrown from his 2013 Triumph shortly before 1:30 a.m., Patch reported.
