Teenage girl, man killed in fiery Malden crash
(George Rizer/Globe Staff)
By John R. Ellement, George Rizer, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
MALDEN -- A teenage girl and a young man were killed early this morning in Malden when their BMW crashed into a home and burst into flames, State Police said.
A second girl under 18 years old was wearing her seat belt and survived the fiery crash, State Police said. She was rushed with serious injuries to Massachusetts General Hospital, where her condition was not immediately available.
The girl spoke with firefighters at the scene and said that her brother was inside the car, which was engulfed in flames, Malden Deputy Fire Chief Philip Cargill said. Police and firefighters tried to rescue the two people trapped inside the BMW, but the flames were so intense "they couldn’t get within 10 feet of the car," Cargill said.
State Police identified the driver of the car as Jean M. Olivier, 22, of Malden.
The crash occurred at 4:30 a.m. when the 1996 BMW veered off northbound Route 28. The car, which was driven by the young man, flipped on its side, crashed through a wrought iron fence, and hit a two-story white house at the corner of the Fellsway and Charles Street. No one inside the house was injured, said Lieutenant Eric Anderson, a State Police spokesman.
The flames charred the outside of the house, but the structure did not catch fire, Cargill said.
Asleep on the second floor of a home across the street, Antonio Holanda said he jolted awake and heard “one big explosion and two smaller explosions.”
Holanda ran downstairs but the car was already in flames. “It was too late,” he said.
It appears that the teenage girl who was killed was not wearing a seat belt. She was ejected from the car, which is usually an indication that a seat belt was not in use, police said.
Investigators from the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section will determine whether she was wearing a seat belt. The team will also try to pinpoint the cause of the crash.
Northbound Route 28 was closed for 3 1/2 hours at the Fellsway east/west split while police investigated. A tow truck removed the charred BMW from the sidewalk in front of the house at 7:30 a.m.
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