Crash at indoor auto auction claims 4th life; 3 last week

The sudden acceleration and crash of an SUV at a Massachusetts indoor auto auction last week has claimed the life of a fourth person.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and police confirm 50-year-old Elliott Rowlands Jr. died Wednesday of injuries sustained in the May 3 crash at LynnWay Auto Auction in Billerica (bihl-RIH'-kuh).

Rowlands was from Buzzards Bay. He was among nine people injured when the 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee apparently lurched out of control and crashed through a wall.

Rhode Island residents Brenda Lopez and Pantaleon Santos were pronounced dead at the scene. Lowell resident Leezandra Aponte was taken to a hospital after the crash and died there.

The driver worked for LynnWay and wasn't hospitalized. The Boston Globe says records show the driver has been blamed for seven car crashes in the past 30 years.