text: Story highlights A woman in an SUV hits a 300-pound black bear 
   
   Three people in one car pull over to help 
   
   Another car plows into the three good Samaritans, killing them 
   
   A rare car crash involving a black bear and a chain reaction left three people dead and eight injured in Florida, authorities said. 
   
   A woman in an SUV hit the 300-pound black bear in a dark, remote road Sunday night, leaving her stranded at Big Cypress Seminole Reservation in the Everglades. 
   
   A group of three people in a separate car pulled over to help, said Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminole Police Department. 
   
   Once they got out of their vehicle, a third car plowed into the disabled SUV then hit the three good Samaritans, authorities said. 
   
   All three died, Bitner said. 
   
   The three cars had a total of 13 passengers; eight were injured and an additional two were not hurt, including the woman in the SUV. 
   
   "I have never heard of a case of a bear being in a traffic accident," Bitner said. "We have had cases of Florida panthers being involved in car accident, but not a Florida black bear." 
   
   The identities of the victims were not immediately released. 
   
   The bear died when it was struck by the SUV. ||||| Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter 
   
   MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Three people were killed and eight others were hospitalized after a SUV hit and killed a black bear, resulting in a chain reaction crash with two other cars in Florida’s Everglades Sunday evening. 
   
   The first crash happened along Snake Road in Alligator Alley on the Big Cypress Seminole reservation, said Seminole Tribe Spokesman Gary Bitner. Snake Road is near mile marker 49 on Alligator Alley. 
   
   Broward Sheriff’s spokesman Mike Jachles described the first vehicle as a Cadillac SUV, possibly an Escalade. Jachles said there were at least three people in the SUV with injures. 
   
   WATCH MaryAnn Martinez’ report, click here. 
   
   According to Seminole police, a second car stopped to help the passengers inside the SUV. That’s when a third car, a Mercedes, crashed into the second car. The three people from car number two were killed. 
   
   The passengers from the Mercedes have various degrees of injures. 
   
   “There was an 45-year-old man, a 14-year-old son, a daughter, and a grandchild in that third vehicle.” said Jachles. 
   
   Six patients were transported to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. Two others were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. 
   
   Of the 13 passengers in all three cars, two walked away uninjured including the driver of the SUV that hit the bear. Jachles said the driver walked away without a scratch, even though the SUV was practically totaled after hitting and killing the black bear. 
   
   The Florida Fish and Wild-life Commission said the Everglades is the natural habitat of black bears. 
   
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target: – It's not uncommon to spot a black bear roaming the Florida Everglades, but it is uncommon to actually hit one on the road. Three people died last night and eight were injured in a three-car wreck in the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation that began when the first car hit a bear, the Sun-Sentinel reports. The SUV driver's collision with the 300-pound bear set off a chaotic chain reaction. A second car with three people pulled over to help out the SUV passengers—the bear was dead, the SUV was totaled, and passengers were hurt, though the driver herself wasn't injured. That's when a Mercedes smashed into the second car, killing the three good Samaritans who had stopped to help, CBS Miami reports. The Mercedes passengers and at least three of the SUV's passengers suffered various injuries ranging from serious to critical and were brought to two local hospitals by airlift and ambulance. "I have never heard of a case of a bear being in a traffic accident," a Seminole Police Department spokesman tells CNN. "We have had cases of Florida panthers being involved in car accident[s], but not a Florida black bear." One other person wasn't injured in the accident, which involved a total of 13 people and took place close to 7pm on desolate Snake Road. (Another recent tragic crash involved a 16-year-old driving his family to Disney World.)