Three Dead in Florida Everglades Car Crash After Stopping to Help Woman Who Hit a Black Bear [Pic]

Three people were killed Sunday and eight others were hospitalized after a rare vehicle crash with a black bear in the Florida Everglades.

According to Sun Sentinel, Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminole Tribe police, said at least five cars were involved in the accident on Snake Road in the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation. He added that the three people killed were said to have been good Samaritans who stopped and offered to help the driver of a vehicle that had struck and killed the bear around 7 p.m. Bitner said that the driver, a woman, was not injured in the collision.

As the name suggests, Snake Road is a paved road with many winding turns, flanked by a canal. The three vehicles who stopped to help were heading south on the reservation road, and Bitner said they were traveling together and may have been heading to Miami-Dade County.

With the four vehicles stopped on the road, a fifth northbound vehicle came along the road, plowing into the vehicle that hit the bear and striking another of the three vehicles that came to help, according to Bitner. It was not immediately clear if all the injured people were outside their vehicles when the cars collided.

Eight people in total were taken to Broward County hospitals, four of whom were transported to Broward Health Medical Center via helicopter. Three sustained injuries ranging from serious to critical when they were admitted.

Two other victims were taken by ambulance to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Bitner said.

There were two additional people at the scene who were not hurt.

The spokesman would not confirm any of the names of the 13 people involved in the incident, nor did he provide details on the types of vehicles they were driving or at what speed they were hit.

Bitner added that accident reconstruction teams are conducting an investigation.

"There are bears all through the Everglades, but this is the first time we've had an accident involving a bear," Bitner said.

Several hundred bears are estimated to live in the Big Cypress National Preserve, which lies just west of where the accident took place.