A rare three-vehicle chain reaction car crash involving a black bear killed three people and left eight others injured in a remote area of a Florida Indian reservation on Sunday, authorities said.
The gruesome pile-up occurred when three people stepped out to help a driver who had fatally struck a black bear on a remote road in Florida, NBC News reported.
The first vehicle struck the bear; then, after a second vehicle stopped to assist, a third vehicle crashed into the first one - the one that hit the bear - killing three people from the second vehicle, said Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminole Police Department.
"I have never heard of a case of a bear being in a traffic accident," Bitner said. "We have had cases of Florida panthers being involved in car accident, but not a Florida black bear."
"This is a first," he added.
Before 7 p.m. Sunday night, an unidentified woman in an SUV hit the 300-pound black bear on a dark two-lane road, leaving her stranded just north of Interstate 75 on the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation in the Everglades, Bitner said. A separate car, carrying three people, pulled over to help the driver.
Once they got out of their vehicle, a third car collided into the disabled SUV, killing the three passengers from the second vehicle, and injuring eight others, authorities said. The female driver in the initial crash with the bear was not hurt.
The eight victims were taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, with four of the most severely injured flown by emergency evacuation helicopters. Their conditions weren't immediately disclosed.
Following the tragic incident involving a total of 13 unidentified passengers, accident reconstruction experts on the scene "are still trying to figure everything out," a spokesman from Seminole Police Department said, adding that it was the first time there had been such an accident involving a black bear, which are common in the area.
At least two of the vehicles were reportedly going in opposite directions, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the identities of the victims were not immediately released.
