A teenage driver rushing to see his father in the hospital ran a red light along Philadelphia's Roosevelt Boulevard causing another driver to collide with his car overnight Friday, police said.
The collision killed two teen friends of the driver who were headed to the hospital with him.
The teens were speeding southbound in a red Hyundai Sonata along the busy boulevard around 12:30 a.m. when they flew through the intersection at Rising Sun Avenue in the city's Olney neighborhood, police said.
A 55-year-old woman, driving a Ford Explorer SUV, collided with the sedan as she drove along Front Street. The impact sent the car into a light pole.
Maggie Goloff, who was sitting in the back, appeared to have head trauma and a broken neck, police said. Medics pronounced the 16-year-old Northeast Philadelphia girl dead at the scene. [[397118211, C]]
"Just a beautiful person inside and out," said Goloff's friend Jamie O'Connor. "She always had everybody’s back, even if they were in the wrong situation."
Medics rushed Osman Zeylnov, 19, to Einstein Medical Center where he died a short time later.
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Zeylnov's friend, Ahmed Shain, was behind the wheel, police said. The friends were rushing to Temple University Hospital to be with Shain's father who had been robbed at gunpoint and physically assaulted with a gun while delivering pizza, according to preliminary information obtained by investigators.
(Police initially said the Shain and Zeylnov were brothers, but family members tell NBC10 they were close friends.)
Shain, 18, remained conscious as medics took him to the hospital in stable condition with facial injuries. The SUV driver, who wasn't identified, also was hospitalized in stable condition, police said.
Police reviewed surveillance video and interviewed both drivers as they investigated the crash. Investigators determined Shain "disregarded the red signal at the intersection," police said.
Witnesses said it appeared the sedan was going faster than the speed limit at the time.
"He was going too fast, trying to run the light. Probably about 70 miles an hour," witness Emile Stanton told NBC10.
"Oh man, when I saw him hit that car, I just shook my head. I just began to start praying," she said.
No word if any charges will be filed.
The deadly crash had at least one of Goloff's friends reconsidering getting her own license.
"My driver’s test is coming up on October 21st and I’m not taking it now because of this," said O'Connor. "I don’t want to drive."
