A nine-year-old boy crawled through the broken window of a burning car after the horror crash which killed five members of the same family.
All five victims were children and were all either siblings or cousins.
The SUV veered off the road in New York, struck a boulder and then a tree. Officials believe the 16-year-old driver may have fallen asleep or become distracted.
The victims have been named as as Malik Smith, the 16-year-old driver, Anthony Billips Jr., 17, Zahnyiah Cross, 12, Shawnell Cross, 11, and Andrew Billips, 8.
Police have said that driver Malik Smith did not have a driving license. They also said speed does not appear to have been a factor in the Saturday night crash.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer said: “The crash cost the lives of five young people. And that is a tragedy no matter what the details are.
“It was a horrific accident site.”
A 9-year-old boy, the sixth person in the SUV, was the only survivor.
Police said he apparently was riding in the rear cargo area of the 2021 Nissan Rogue and escaped out of a rear broken window with help from a Westchester County police officer who found the vehicle in flames and tried unsuccessfully to put out the fire.
The boy was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Police have not yet interviewed him.
“He’s just seen five members of his family die. This has got to be an impossible situation for him as a young boy. So the kind of questions that you or I would want to ask him to know these things probably isn’t appropriate until things have been stabilised,” Latimer said.
The SUV had been rented to a relative.
Police are looking into how the driver had access to the car. If he’d had a driver’s permit, Latimer said, the teen still would not have been able to drive legally at night and would also have needed to have an adult in the vehicle with him, under New York law.
“We’re less concerned at this point about who to blame, but to understand exactly what happened,” Latimer said.
County Public Safety Commissioner Terrance Raynor said the investigation is not “criminal in nature.” However, he said if something criminal is discovered “as things evolve,” the district attorney’s office would get involved with the case.
“They wasn’t cousins, they were more brothers. Brothers and sisters, that’s how close they are,” said Malik Smith, the driver’s dad, The Independent reported.
A fundraiser has been setup by distraught family members.
