Van plunges off NYC road into zoo grounds; 7 killed

Van plunges off NYC road into zoo grounds; 7 killed

Associated Press

NEW YORK

An out-of-control van careered across several lanes of traffic on a New York City highway overpass today, then plunged more than 50 feet off the side of the road and landed in a ravine on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo, killing all seven people aboard, authorities said.

Three of the victims were children, fire department spokesman Jim Long said, including girls ages 12 and 10 and a younger girl whose age wasn’t known. The others were an 84-year-old man and three women, ages 80, 45 and 30. Long didn’t name them.

The van was headed south on the highway that cuts through a working-class neighborhood when it bounced off the median, crossed all southbound lanes and hit the guardrail, police said. Next to the guardrail is a pedestrian path, and the 4-foot-high iron fence between that walkway and the ground below was intact after the accident, meaning the van likely flipped over it.