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Four teens killed in horrific car crash on Long Island; teen at wheel only had learner's permit

Car crushed after veering off Southern State Parkway and striking trees

UPDATED: MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2012, 5:07 PMhttp://reviewall.net/find/me.jpg



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JOEL CAIRO FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

State cops say the car was heading westbound when it veered into a wooded area, striking several trees.




Four teenagers from Queens were killed Monday in a horrific crash on Long Island when their car sped off a slick highway and wrapped itself around a tree.
The driver, 17-year-old Joseph Beer of Richmond Hill, only had a learner’s permit and survived, State Police officials said.
Beer, who is from the Richmond Hill section, lost control of the 2012 Subaru Imprezza when he “failed to negotiate a curve,” officials said.
While police were notifying the families of the victims — all of them 18-year-olds who also lived in Richmond Hill — Rice was being treated for his injuries at a Nassau County hospital and being questioned by investigators.
The four were killed when the Subaru split in two from the impact, and tossed the teens from the car like rag dolls, police said.
They were pronounced dead at the scene.


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New York State troopers work the scene of fatal crash of a Subaru on the Southern State Parkway in Malverne, N.Y., on October 8, 2012.



Several of the victims attended Richmond Hill High School, a 17-year-old friend said.
“This is a terrible tragedy,” he said. “I can’t believe they’re all dead.”
Beer and his doomed friends were heading westbound around 3:40 a.m. on the Southern State Parkway when for reasons still not clear it suddenly roared off the highway and into some trees in Malverne, LI, Nassau County officials said.
“It sounded like an airplane crash,” Michael Campos, who lives nearby, told WPIX television.
Campos said when he went out to investigate, he found a horror show.

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Four people were killed in the crash, and a fifth was hospitalized with unknown injuries.


“I saw four bodies on the floor and I went by the road, on the highway, and it was slippery,” he said. “It was wet like it was just raining out.”
Investigators later found backpacks, a standardized test prep manual and a video game.
Other witnesses reportedly saw a young man amid the wreckage right after the crash, using a cellphone to light his way in the gloom.
It was not clear if this was Beer.
Immediately after the crash, the State Police closed the westbound lanes of the parkway between exits 17 and 19 and began rerouting traffic.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...#ixzz28kGfRx37

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