Public Funeral for Bronx Zoo Accident Victims Held Friday Morning (Video)

The seven victims of Sunday's Bronx Zoo accident were laid to rest Friday morning after a public funeral mass at the Church of St. Raymond in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx. Hundreds of people showed, including many who had never met the victims or their loved ones but were touched by the horrible incident that killed three generations of a single family. The injustice in this story is a major part of the reason it has drawn so much attention, as the safety conditions at the section of the Bronx River Parkway where the accident occurred have always been sub-par, and this is not the first accident to occur in almost the very same spot. The New York State Department of Transportation is now moving forward to put in safer guardrails at three sections of the parkway, but it's too little, too late.

Several Fordham University vans were necessary to transport all the mourners to the church. Two of the victims worked for the university in its custodial department. Monsignor John Graham led the service, stating that the family has gone through "a nightmare of unimaginable frightening real proportions." The evening before, a public wake at the Parkchester Funeral Home drew more than a thousand people to pay their respects, and the line stretched for blocks. Due to the incredible expense of burying seven people, the son of the driver was able to rely on his fraternity to raise $110,000 to help bury his mother, little sister, aunt, two young cousins, and his grandparents. They were killed when the family's SUV flew off an overpass, plummeted sixty feet, and landed upside-down in a non-public area of the Bronx Zoo property. All seven victims were wearing seatbelts and were killed on impact.

The grandparents' bodies were to be returned home to the Dominican Republic, and the two women and their young daughters were to be buried at St. Raymond Cemetery in Castle Hill. "This is just a tragedy. Seven at one time. Three generations. No goodbye. It doesn't have to happen in your house to be a tragedy. We shed a few tears," said Direna Small, who lives nearby but was one of many mourners who did not know the family.

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