Five people were killed in a car crash on Route 3 in Bergen County, New Jersey on Sunday night after the driver of an SUV ran into a construction vehicle.
The SUV driver struck a front-end loader that was being operated on the westbound side of Route 3 near the Route 17 exit at around 10:45 p.m., according to Rutherford Police Chief John Russo. All the victims—three women, a man, and a boy around 2 years old—were riding in the SUV. Four of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene; the toddler died at Hackensack University Medical Center a few hours after the crash.
Chief Russo said that only two of the victims have been identified so far, and that he is withholding their names pending family notification. The Bergen County prosecutor's Fatal Accident Investigation Unit will investigate the cause of the crash.
The construction work is supposed to replace bridges over the highway and widen the road to ease congestion, according to NJDOT.
