jonathan vigliotti from nbc station wnbc 4 new york has details. >> reporter: the dense wooded area of the bronx zoo's southeast corner hides the tragic scene that first responders describe as one of the worst they have ever seen on the job. >> sometimes you come upon events that are horrific, and this was one of them. >> reporter: fdny deputy chief ronald warner says when crews finally made it through a thicket of trees, weeds, and vines, they found a van upside down completely crushed. inside, seven people, the youngest, an infant, the oldest, 84. none of them made it out of this urban jungle alive. >> they went through a triage process, and based upon the horrific injuries, there was nothing that we could do. >> reporter: police say that van was heading southbound on the bronx river parkway when it somehow lost control, hit the median, then took a fatal plunge. >> it traveled over the railing and a distance of 75, 80 feet before it came down and hit the ground. it fell a hundred feet from the overpass. >> reporter: zoo officials say the van landed in a remote area near the zoo's spa

nbc's jonathan vigliotti has more. >> reporter: the dense wooded area of the bronx zoo's southeast corner hides the tragic scene that first responders describe as one of the worst they have ever seen on the job. >> i've been in the fire department 30 years. how long, howie? 30 years. and sometimes you come upon events that are horrific. and this was one of them. >> reporter: fdny deputy chief ronald werner says when crews finally made it through a thicket of trees, weeds, and vines they found a van upside down, completely crushed. inside, seven people. the youngest an infant, the oldest 84. none of them made it out of this urban jungle alive. >> after the victims were extricated one at a time they were brought over to our triage area. they went through the triage process. and based upon their horrific injury there was nothing further we could do. >> reporter: police say one of the victims was a male, the others females. sources say they are related. their lives came to an end just before 12:30 sunday afternoon. police say that van was heading southbound on the bronx river parkway when it

jonathan vigliotti of wnbc new york has details. >> reporter: the dense wooded areas of the brojs zoo hides the tragic scene. >> sometimes you come to convenients that are horrific and this was one of them. >> reporter: the deputy chief ronald warner said when crews finally made it through a thick oeft weeds, trees and vines, they found a van upside down completely crushed. inside, seven people, the young echlt, an infant, the oldest, 84. none of them made it out of the urban process alive. police say that van was heading southbound on the bronx river parkway when it somehow lost control, hit the median and took the fatal plunge. >> it travelled over the railing a distance of 75, 80 feet before it came down and hit the ground. it fell a hundred feet from the overpass. >> reporter: zoo officials say the van landed near a remote area. at no point, they say, were visitors, staff, or animals in harm's way. still this chilling accident has reached everyone in this corner of the bronx among the cheerful sound of a weekend ice cream truck, you hear passers bigasp, wondering what went wrong.

. >> that was wnbc's jonathan vigliotti reporting. >>> here is your first look at other news going on. colorado, chilling video of a store clerk shot in the arm. somehow the victim was able to remain calm even opening the cash register. the gunman fired even more shots panicking customers inside. the clerk is recovering. no arrests have been made. >>> in southern california, a wayward dolphin has become stranded in a wetlands channel. it became disoriented and started swimming in circles. experts say if it can't figure its way out soon or high tide doesn't push it back out to sea, they'll have to use a harness to get the jump down. >>> over the weekend in kentucky, churchill downs had to suspend racing as hail came in. the kentucky derby is still a few days off. two inches of hail fell causing power outages and damaging some cars. >>> finally, talk about going green. a high school jr. used the tabs off cans of soda to create her dress for the prom. more than 5,000 tabs were used to assemble the aluminum gown and, no, she swears that she didn't drink all of those sodas all by herself.