A man died and a passenger was critically injured after an SUV crashed into a concrete wall and burst into flames on Union Turnpike in Kew Gardens on Saturday night, police reported.
The fiery crash took place at 8:27 p.m. on Dec. 3 along the eastbound lanes of Union Turnpike at the Grand Central Parkway overpass.
According to law enforcement sources, an unidentified man was behind the wheel of a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee traveling with a 31-year-old male passenger eastbound on the Grand Central Parkway when the vehicle exited at Union Turnpike at a high rate of speed.
Police said the SUV went up the ramp but was not able to safely navigate the exit. It subsequently hurtled across all three lanes of the eastbound Union Turnpike before slamming into a concrete wall at the overpass above the parkway. The SUV then caught fire.
Officers from the 107th Precinct and EMS units rushed to the scene. Though they were able to pull the passenger from the wreck, the driver was not able to escape and died. His identity was withheld by police pending family notification.
The passenger, meanwhile, was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian/Queens hospital, where he is listed in critical condition with trauma about the torso.
An investigation by the NYPD Collision Investigation Squad is ongoing.
