Thursday, 4:30 PM
Two killed when car slams into tree in Roxbury
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff
Two people died and four were injured in an early-morning car crash in Roxbury when their vehicle skidded across Blue Hill Avenue, jumped the curb and smashed into a tree and through a picket fence.
Boston Police said they believe speed was a factor in the accident, which occurred just before 5 a.m.
Patrice Lawson, who lives next door to the crash site, awoke with a start and ran downstairs in her pajamas to find a badly damaged car in an empty dirt lot beside a three-story home.
"I heard a loud bang, it sounded like an explosion," she said. "Scare you enough to make you run."
The driver was slumped over and unconscious, she said. None of the passengers was making any noise. She immediately called 911, and emergency personnel were on the scene within minutes, Lawson said. They extricated the passengers from the crumbled Nissan Maxima by tearing its top off.
Police said they were investigating the cause of the crash, and that the four injured passengers were being treated at local hospitals. They did not release the names of the victims.
Lawson said it had not started raining at the time of the crash and that the car left long skid marks at a 45 degree angle on the straight two-lane stretch of road. After hitting the curb, the car evidently hit the tree some five feet off the ground, then spun through the air, crashing in the narrow empty lot facing the street.
"It was a miracle it didn't hit the house," Lawson said.
Later this morning, a white teddy bear had been fastened to the gouged tree with yellow police tape. The name Christopher had been written twice on a red heart on the rain-stained stuffed animal. Slats of the fence were strewn across the empty lot, and a bent metal railing lay beside the steps of the house.
"It's sad, so sad. Such young people," Lawson said.
