Police investigate the van that plunged over the Bronx River Parkway, April 29, 2012. (Louis Lanzano/AP)
The SUV that plunged more than 50 feet from the Bronx River Parkway on Sunday, killing seven people from three generations of a Bronx family, was headed to a family reunion, stunned relatives said.
"I lost my family," said Juan Gonzalez, whose 45-year-old wife and 10-year-old daughter were killed in the crash, according to the New York Post. "What can I say? I don't want to be here. I want to die."
Gonzalez's wife, Maria, a Fordham University staffer, was driving her daughter, 85-year-old father, 81-year-old mother, 39-year-old sister and two nieces (ages 3 and 7) to a party at her sister's Bronx home when she lost control of the vehicle, police said.
The vehicle flew off an elevated portion of the parkway near the Bronx Zoo at about 12:30 p.m. local time, authorities said. It's not clear what caused the crash.
According to the Associated Press, the SUV was headed south when "it bounced off the median, crossed all southbound lanes over to the guardrail and fell."
