A tragic accident took the lives of seven family members Sunday, April 29, after a car they were traveling in lost control and plunged into the Bronx zoo.
Law enforcement officials report that seven members of the Gonzalez family, three of them children, were killed this weekend when the Honda SUV they were traveling in went over a Bronx River Parkway overpass and plunged 60 feet.
Maria Gonzalez, 45, was driving the vehicle and died instantly. The crash also took the lives of her parents, Jacob Nunez, 85, and Ana Julia Martinez, 81, as well as her sister Maria Nunez, 39, her 10-year-old daughter, Jocelyn Gonzalez and her nieces Niely and Marly Rosario, ages 7 and 3.
Juan Gonzalez, the husband of Maria Gonzalez, is devastated and told the New York Daily News that he “does not want to live.” “I don’t want to live anymore. I’m destroyed. I don’t want to be alive,” he said.
- Juan Gonzlez lost his wife, Maria, (center rear) and daughter, Jocelyn, (center) in this weekend’s crash.
Firefighters described the scene of the crash as “terrible, just carnage” and noted that the “passengers didn’t stand a chance.”
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly also commented on the scene and noted that the driver more than likely lost control after hitting a barrier. “We believe that the driver, who was traveling in the left hand lane, struck the Jersey barrier, and in reacting and trying to correct, turned right, went through the barrier and dropped 60 feet,” Kelly said.
Officials are regarding the crash as the deadliest since March 2011 when a crowded bus heading back to Chinatown was split in half on Interstate 95 in the Bronx. That accident left 14 dead in what was described as “a blood soaked mess” of body parts, crumpled metal and broken glass.
–danielle canada
