Three men inside a 2016 Honda Civic died after the driver crashed through barriers and into Newtown Creek in an industrial section of Long Island City early Saturday morning, police said.
Around 4:40 a.m., the driver of the Civic was headed west on Borden Avenue near the Long Island Expressway “at a high rate of speed” when the driver lost control, “overtaking a hill” and plunged the car into the creek, according to police and FDNY officials.
A witness told ABC-7 the driver sped over a skateboard ramp that was under an LIE overpass and propelled the car through a fence and into the creek.
Police responded to a 911 call and found three men in the submerged Civic. FDNY said they deployed “multiple rescue divers in conjunction with Marine units” to extract the men.
A 30-year-old man was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. A 25-year-old man and another unidentified man were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where they were pronounced dead. Police could not immediately say which of the three men was driving the Civic.
CBS-2 reported that the responders initially couldn't see the submerged car in the pre-dawn hours, though FDNY Deputy Chief Fred Mallett said within ten minutes of arriving at the scene "we had divers in the water and approximately 10 minutes after that, we recovered two victims and pulled them out of the water."
The names of the men were not released pending family notification. NYPD’s Highway Collision Investigation Squad was investigating.
