DRIVING WHILE BLACK KILLS THREE: Shaquita Kendrick, 21, Timothy Riley, 20, William Burton, 21, were ejected like cannon balls from a car that Robert M. Hayes, 22, lost control of on Borman Expressway

3 south suburban residents killed in crash on I-80/94.

The car was SPLIT IN HALF and EXPLODED IN FLAMES.

Three colored Chicago south suburban residents were killed and two other people were injured Sunday morning in a single-vehicle accident on the Borman Expressway in northwest Indiana that left the car split in half, police said.

According to a news release from the Indiana State Police, a 2010 Dodge Avenger driven by a Chicago man, Robert M. Hayes, 22, was westbound on Interstate Highway 80/94 about 3:37 a.m. Sunday just east of Cline Avenue near Gary. Hayes passed a semi tractor-trailer that was in the right lane, then switched back to the right lane and lost control of the car.

The car first hit a concrete barrier wall, the release said, flipped onto a barrier wall and struck a pole holding a large overhead sign that spans two lanes of the exit ramp at Cline Avenue. The impact split the car in two, with the front driver's side of the car facing west and the other half facing east.

After the crash, a small fire started that was put out by Good Samaritans, police said.

A front-seat passenger, Shaquita Kendrick, 21, was thrown from the car and was pronounced dead on the scene by a deputy from the Lake County coroner's office, the release said. According to the coroner, Kendrick lived in the 2500 block of Elmdale Avenue in Markham.

The other two fatalities, both from south suburban Calumet City, were riding in the back seat of the car. Timothy Riley, 20, was pronounced dead on the scene, and William Burton, 21, was transported to Methodist Northlake hospital in Gary, where he was pronounced dead about 4:26 a.m. According to the coroner, Riley lived in the 500 block of S. Saginaw Avenue and Burton in the 400 block of Campbell Avenue.

A third back-seat passenger, 22-year-old John Paul Misquez of Los Angeles, was also taken to the Gary hospital before being transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, the release said.

Hayes was taken to the Gary hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.


No charges have been filed in connection with the accident, the release said.