4 dead after car flips, sinks in creek off East River in Queens; driver survives

4/5/2014

Police investigate the scene of an accident on a dead-end street where a car containing five passengers plunged into Steinway Creek in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, Saturday, April 5, 2014, in New York. The New York Police Department says four of five people pulled from a vehicle submerged in a New York City creek have died. The fifth apparently escaped serious injury and is in stable condition. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Four people died after the car they were riding in flipped into a creek and sank Friday night in Queens, authorities said.

A fifth person — the driver — apparently escaped serious injury and told responding officers that four others were trapped, the New York Police Department said.

Divers from the Fire Department of New York pulled two males and two females from the 2009 Honda Accord, police said. The females and one of the males were pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital Center. The other male was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Queens.

The 20-year-old driver was taken to Elmhurst, where he was listed in stable condition. Police did not identify him or the four who died.

A fire department spokesman said units responded to a call of a car in Steinway Creek, off the East River in Queens, around 10:35 p.m. Friday.

Police said the car was traveling west on 19th Avenue when it hit a curb and rolled over into the water near 37th Street. Other details were not available early Saturday morning. An investigation is continuing, police said.

The accident occurred at a dead-end street next to the creek in Astoria, a neighborhood in Queens.