Crystal Gravely, 19, Jada Monique Butts, 19, Darius Fletcher, 21, Jaleel Furtado, 20, killed, 20-year-old driver injured, taken to hospital, after their car crashes into Steinway Creek in the Astoria area of Queens.

Modified Date: 
Wed, 09/24/2014 - 11:11am
Accident Date: 
Thursday, April 3, 2014

Four dead in Queens after car goes into creek.

Four people were killed after a passenger car went into a creek in the Queens section of New York, a city Fire Department spokesman said Saturday.

NYC police: Car flips into Queens creek, killing 4.

A car heading down a dark, dead-end street in a desolate industrial area flipped over a wooden curb into a creek, killing four passengers, police said Saturday.

A car heading down a dark, dead-end street in a desolate industrial area flipped over a wooden curb into a creek, killing four passengers, police said Saturday.

The driver escaped serious injury and told officers at the scene in the Astoria section of Queens that the four were trapped in the submerged car.

Police said the 2009 Honda Accord tumbled into Steinway Creek, a trash-strewn inlet off the East River, just after 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Fire department divers pulled the four victims from the car. Police identified them as 21-year-old Darius Fletcher, 19-year-old Jada Monique Butts, 19-year-old Crystal Gravely and 20-year-old Jaleel Furtado. They were pronounced dead at hospitals.

Several of the victims' family members visited the scene Saturday morning. The sobbing stepmother of one was comforted by police.

The 20-year-old driver was listed in stable condition at Elmhurst General Hospital. Police did not immediately identify him.

Police towed the car from the creek Saturday morning and placed it on the pavement, wheels up, just a few feet from the water's edge. They then flipped it back on its wheels and drove it away on a flatbed truck.

Police divers helping with the towing operation were hosed off by firefighters when they emerged from the creek, a foul-looking inlet peppered with trash and mud.

Police visited a car service business that has security cameras trained in the direction the car would have been going in hopes of learning the vehicle's speed in the seconds before it crashed.

The crash occurred on an isolated stretch of road near parking lots and industrial buildings, adjacent to a wastewater treatment plant and not far from the Rikers Island jail.

The Steinway piano factory that gives the creek its name is a few hundred yards from the crash site.

Type: Car Accident
People Involved: 
Crystal Gravely
Jada Monique Butts
Darius Fletcher
Jaleel Furtado
Roadway: 
Steinway Creek
City: 
Queens, NY

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