This is such a tragic story. Today, 17-year-old Justin Beer was driving his car on the Long Island highway when his car veered off, killing his four friends. Click below for more of the story.
Four Queens teenagers were killed Monday when their car — driven by a 17-year-old with only a learner’s permit — sped off a slick Long Island highway and wrapped itself around a tree.
Joseph Beer, who was at the wheel, somehow survived the wreck that killed his pals, State Police officials said.
Beer lost control of the 2012 Subaru Imprezza when he “failed to negotiate a curve,” officials said.
While Beer was being treated at a Nassau County hospital and questioned by investigators, four other families in the Richmond Hill section were facing what’s likely to be wrenching funerals.
All four victims were 18, and three of them — Peter Anthony, Chris Khan and Darian Ramnarine — were “popular” and “well known” seniors at Richmond Hill High School, a school source said.
“It’s going to be a very sad day at the school,” the source said.
The last victim was identified by friends as Neil Rajaba, a student at Abraham Lincoln High School.
As police investigated, the victims’ friends gathered at the crash site to weep and to mourn.
“This is a terrible tragedy,” Kevin Persaud, a 17-year-old friend of the victims, said. “I can’t believe they’re all dead.”
One mourner left the site with a sad memento of his lost friend — a gym shoe he found by the side of the Southern State Parkway.
Beer, who like his buddies was also from Richmond Hill, should not have been at the wheel in the first place.
Drivers with learner permits are prohibited from driving unless accompanied by a supervising driver, age 21 or older, who has a valid license, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Beer and his doomed friends were heading westbound around 3:40 a.m. on the parkway when the Subaru suddenly roared off the highway and into some trees in Malverne, LI, police said.
The four victims were killed when the Subaru split in two from the impact, and tossed the teens from the car like rag dolls.
They were pronounced dead at the scene.
“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.
“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.
— With Oren Yaniv, Rachel Monahan, Edgar Sandoval and Jennifer H. Cunningham
