The Associated Press
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A sport utility vehicle carrying eight members of a southern New Jersey high school football team crashed Saturday on the Garden State Parkway, killing four players and injuring another four, authorities said.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the teenagers were coming from or where they were going when the SUV crashed at about 11:45 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the parkway near exit 38A in Egg Harbor Township.
The driver apparently lost control of the SUV as it went around a crest in the road and came upon heavy traffic, said Sgt. Julian Castellanos, a state police spokesman. The SUV overturned several times, ejecting two passengers, one of whom was struck by a passing car, Castellanos said.
The driver and two passengers were pronounced dead at the scene; a third passenger died at a hospital. Four other passengers were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries believed to be non-life-threatening.
State police confirmed that all eight were players on the Mainland Regional High School football team in Linwood and ranged in age from 15 to 17. Their names weren’t immediately released.
The crash comes just weeks before the school year begins.
Officials at Mainland Regional, a 1,600-pupil school that pulls students from Linwood, Somers Point and Northfield, didn’t immediately respond to emails and phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Its football team, the Mainland Mustangs, is scheduled to open its season on Sept. 9. In 2008, the team won the South Jersey Group IV sectional championship for the first time in its history, according to the Press of Atlantic City.