Friends remember victims of car crash: 'It's unbelievable' - Chicago Tribune

Four people were killed and a fifth person was seriously injured when their BMW slammed into a concrete wall on the Northwest Side of Chicago early this morning.

A night out among young friends ended in tragedy early Thursday when their BMW smashed into a concrete wall on the Northwest Side, killing four of them and seriously injuring another, authorities said.

"It's unbelievable, I can't believe it," Marco Pulido, 21, a friend of one of the passengers who died.

Police said the car was speeding when it slammed into the wall in the 2600 block of North Narragansett Avenue around 3 a.m.

Three men and a woman were killed and a fifth person was taken in critical condition to Loyola University Medical Center, authorities said. Late Thursday afternoon, officials still had not released the victims' names, though a Chicago police investigator said they were all in their late teens or 20s.

Officers reviewed footage from security cameras to determine if the car may have been racing, but it apparently was not, said major accidents investigator Elliott Musial.

"It appears to be a high-speed crash, it appears to be a loss of control by the vehicle," Musial said at the scene. "In the surveillance video from the store, you see the vehicle come into frame, it's moving at a high rate of speed, it appears to get partially sideways, then crashes into the abutment."

The crash occurred about five feet from about 100 propane ta! nks.   "Luckily it did not actually ignite the propane tanks," Musial said. "It could have been a much more serious incident."

The two occupants in the front seat, who died at the scene, were wearing seatbelts, authorities said. The three backseat occupants were not, Musial said. Two of them died at Our Lady of the Resurrection Hospital.

The stretch of road where the crash occurred is notorious for unsafe driving, said Ali Morsy, who works nearby.

"It would probably be a good idea to close it," said Morsy. "You do get people that don't pay attention, especially on this turn when they're flying down here."

Morsy brought flowers to the scene. "Nothing told me to do it and nobody told me to do it," he tried to explain. "I feel bad, and I can only assume they were young and no one should lose their life that young, especially. . .like that.

"I just pray for their families," he said.

Itzel Arroyo, 19, who knew the driver and another pa! ssenger, also carried flowers to the scene.  Arroyo said one ! of the victims had a young child.

"That's messed up," he said. "They liked to have fun. . .go out."

Pulido offered a tribute to his friend.

"He was just very humble," Pulido said. "He was just a very calm kid, very quiet. For something like this to happen to him is just unbelievable."

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Source : http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-4-dead-traffic-crash-20140612,0,1029051.story