Accident victim made desperate cell phone call

NEW YORK -- A passenger in a car made a desperate cell phone call to a friend, saying the driver was drunk and the car was going far too fast. Moments later, authorities said, the call cut off and the caller was dead.

Diony Richez, 20, of Freeport, N.Y., was one of four people killed early Monday in the crash on a highway in Queens. Two others, including Richez's half brother, were hospitalized in critical condition.

Before the car crashed, a frantic Richez called a friend saying that he and his half brother, Lenny Castro, were the only sober ones in the car, which was speeding at 100 mph. Then the line went dead as the car went out of control.

The vehicle slammed into a tree and caught fire, and the occupants had to be pulled from the car by emergency workers. Richez and three other occupants, including the driver, were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver's name was not immediately released.

Yulanda Thompson, the woman whom Richez called, said he told her, "these people are drinking and going crazy."

"I wish I could've done something to stop it," she told the Daily News. "I just really wish I could've helped." She said he had gotten in the car because he had no other way to get home after going out partying with friends.

Police said that the circumstances of the accident remain unknown and an investigation was continuing.