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Early-Morning Car Accident In Queens Leaves Five People, Including Two Children, Dead

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Christina Rivera said that the speeding black Mercedes SUV packed with eight people ran a red light on Atlantic Avenue in Jamaica, Queens and then nearly slammed into the car that she was in with her boyfriend.

There was a loud screeching when the accident occurred at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, and then what witnesses described as a god-awful bang.

1010 WINS' Eileen Lehpamer reports 

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"It was horrible," Rivera told 1010 WINS' Eileen Lehpamer. "[The driver] swerved and she hit and pole, and then you would have thought that she would have stopped. But [the car] kept on rolling."

That pole is one of the concrete pillars that supports the AirTrain near the Van Wyck Expressway. When the SUV finally stopped rolling over, the bodies of four people laid outside on the street, and the fifth person died inside the car. Two of the deceased victims were an eight-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy.

WCBS 880's Monica Miller reports 

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Chris Montgomery, who works nearby, heard the accident and tried to help. He pulled one 26-year-old man to safety and then tried to save some of the others.

"Everyone inside that car was dead," Montgomery said. "Unfortunately there was one child on the floor who was deceased, covered in blood. It was horrific."

The driver, a 45-year-old woman, is in stable condition at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, as is the 26-year-old man and a seven-year-old boy. According to Lehpamer, the people involved in the crash had just left a wrap-up party for a Nigerian convention.

The identifications of those involved have yet to be released.

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