A car accident in the Bronx left five people dead and two others in critical condition yesterday afternoon, police said.

At about 2:30 p.m., a green Acura carrying six passengers, including a 7-year-old girl, was traveling south on the Bronx River Parkway when the driver encountered some traffic, police said. The driver tried to stop, but veered onto the median, where the car traveled for about 200 feet before smashing into a light pole, police said. After bouncing off the light pole, the car slid into oncoming traffic in the northbound lane of the parkway and collided with three other cars, police said.

A total of 14 people were involved in the accident, but only the people riding in the Acura were killed or seriously injured. Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, and a fifth, the driver of the car, was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center, police said. Two other men who were riding in the car were in critical condition at the hospital last night.

Three people in a livery cab, and another three in a Corolla were taken to the hospital for various injuries, as was an Access-a-Ride bus driver who was taken in for an arm injury. None of their injuries were life threatening, police said.

The northbound lane of the Bronx River Parkway was shut down yesterday afternoon while highway police conducted an investigation and emergency workers removed the damaged cars, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, Edward Timbers, said.