A survivor of a horrific holiday crash that killed three Staten Island teens on their way home from Atlantic City yesterday said their driver lost control when their SUV was cut off by speeding black sports car.
The Ford Expedition that carried the victims swerved and hit a guard rail on the Garden State Parkway in Middletown early Monday morning before it flipped over at least twice and ejected several back seat passengers, who were not wearing seatbelts, officials said.
Vincent Whiteaker, 25, a front-seat passenger, who was belted in, survived the accident with little more than a scratch on his leg, he said.
“I see out of the corner of my eye this black car shoot in front of us,” said Whiteaker, who was in the front seat with driver Dimitrios Iliopoulos, 54, whose family calls him “Jimmy.”
Whiteaker said the driver “got scared and swerved left and right. Next thing I know I’m pulling myself out of the car. I didn’t feel anything. It’s just 2 seconds that changed everyone’s life”
Killed in the crash were Iliopoulos’ two son’s, Chrystoph, 14, and Hlimas, 18, and their friend, Eric Colligan, 15. The driver’s wife, Stavroula, 51, and daughter, Fotiny, were in critical condition at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey.
Fotiny and Whiteaker are engaged to be married.
“I got out and she was moving,” Whiteaker said of his fiancee. “Everyone else was face down.”
Whiteaker said he could not believe the destruction.
“The wreckage looked live a videogame,” Whiteaker said. “There was smoke everywhere. Bodies were flying out everywhere.”
Whiteaker said the mother and the daughter do not yet know about the deaths.
“My fiancee is just going to be devastated,” Whiteaker said. “She has no idea about her brothers. We keep lying to her.”
Whiteaker said Iliopoulos is a platinum member at one of the Atlantic City casino hotels, but was unable to get a room because of the busy holiday. Otherwise, he said, they would not have been on the road.