Car hits beam of elevated train; 4 die

CHICAGO (AP) — A speeding car hit a support beam of a Chicago elevated train track, crashing with enough force to split in two and killing four passengers inside, authorities said Sunday.

The Cook County medical examiner's office said three women died at the scene. A fourth woman was pronounced dead at an area hospital early Sunday. She was identified as Ieshia Nelson, 21, of Chicago. The names of the other women were not immediately available.

Chicago Police Department spokesman Hector Alfaro said the car was traveling fast when it hit a support beam of a Chicago Transit Authority train track on the city's West Side before it ran into a light pole. The crash happened about midnight Sunday.

Chicago fire officials said the vehicle crashed with enough force that it split in two.

Police were investigating the cause of the crash.

The four women were headed to a party, Nelson's mother, Yvette Harris, told Chicago's WBBM-Radio.

She said her daughter had a 2-year-old son, and she had not yet told him the news on the Mother's Day holiday.

"I took him to his grandparents' last night, because he couldn't go to the hospital with me," Harris said. "I don't know what I'm going to say."