Joshua Mendez was looking forward to the birth of a son this week, and his brother Jose Pazos was to celebrate his 28th birthday on Friday.

Sadly, neither sibling reached those milestones after their 2015 Chevrolet Cruze struck a median while going west on the Staten Island Expressway near the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway, killing them both along with a friend, identified by sources as Raymond Irizarry, police and relatives said. All three men were in their 20s.

Police said after the red sedan went out of control and struck the median, it flipped onto a section of grass by the highway at about 4:20 a.m. Sunday.

Mendez and Pazos were two of seven brothers to their parents, Walter Aguilar and Mirna Mendez, who moved with their big family to the New Brighton section of Staten Island

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