By Karen Frantz
A car carrying five Queens teens careened off a Long Island road and hit a number of trees, slicing the car in half and killing the passengers and injuring the driver over the Columbus Day weekend, state police said.
The teens were driving west on the Southern State Parkway near Exit 17 in Hempstead, L.I., when the 2012 Subaru Impreza veered off the road and into the trees around 3:40 Monday morning, police said.
Peter Kanhai, 18; Christopher Khan, 18; and Neil Rajapa, 17, who were from South Ozone Park, and Darian Ramnarine, 18, from Jamaica, were ejected from the car and died instantly, according to the authorities.
The 17-year-old driver, Joseph Beer, of South Richmond Hill, who was also ejected from the car and suffered a broken sternum, was taken to Winthrop Hospital on Long Island, police said.
Cops said Beer did not have a driver’s license and was driving with a learner’s permit.
Backpacks and other personal items could be seen inside the wreckage at the scene, and glass and debris were strewn along the wooded area, according to the Associated Press.
The AP reported one neighbor, Amy Buchanan, whose home is about 50 yards from where the car came to rest, was awakened by the sound of the crash.
“Just a loud boom,” she said. “I’ve lived here for 10 years and there has been an accident almost in that exact spot every year, but never as one as horrific as this,” she said.
The front and rear parts of the car were loaded separately onto a truck that took them away from the scene of the crash, the AP said.
Devastated friends took to Twitter to share their grief. One friend of Khan’s wrote, “It sucks so much right now, so much memories flash thru my mind and [it’s] like wow, he’s just gone … And he won’t come back.”
Reach reporter Karen Frantz by e-mail at kfrantz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
