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07/22/2012 05:09 PM

Five dead, three others injured after SUV flips in Queens

Five people, including two young children, are dead after a car accident in Queens early Sunday. YNN's Tara Lynn Wagner filed the following report.

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Residents near Atlantic Avenue and the Van Wyck Expressway in Jamaica woke to a gruesome scene Sunday morning.

"All I saw was bodies and blankets covered," said one witness.

Police said eight people were in a black Mercedes SUV driving east on Atlantic Avenue when it swiped a concrete stanchion, rolled over and burst into flames.

Three adult women, an 8-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy were killed.

Residents say cars are often traveling along the stretch of road in question at high speeds as they come off the highway.

"Especially at night, when it's empty," said one resident. "They zoom through here and you hear the tires squeezing from inside the house."

Sources said speed may have been a factor in the crash. Cameras near the scene may provide some clues.

The three people who survived the crash were taken to Jamaica Hospital, including a 7-year-old boy and the 45-year-old woman who was behind the wheel.

Visitors here say all eight victims were members of the same family who had attended a party Saturday night, an annual reunion for members of the Ibo tribe in Nigeria.

The accident is frighteningly similar to a single-car accident that claimed the lives of seven family members in the Bronx in April.

Three generations of a family died in a crash when their SUV plunged more than 50 feet off the Bronx River Parkway and into a ravine on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo.

The SUV landed on its roof, killing all seven people aboard, including three children.

Authorities said speed was a factor in that crash.