Miramar -- A sport utility vehicle carrying a family to a cruise flipped on Interstate 75 Sunday afternoon, killing a woman and two teenagers and injuring the man driving, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

No one was wearing a seat belt, and four people were thrown from the SUV as it rolled across the interstate, Trooper Sean Brammer said.

Killed in the crash were Jacqueline Rodriguez, 38, and Evelyn Rodriguez, 15, both of Naples, and Jessica Lequerique, 16, of Jacksonville.

The driver of the vehicle, Josue Rodriguez, was taken to Hollywood Memorial with minor injuries. A fifth passenger, 10-year-old Elizabeth Rodriguez of Naples, was also injured. She was unstrapped in the middle of the back seat and remained inside the blue Suzuki Grand Vitara as it tumbled. The girl was conscious and talking when help arrived, as two of the victims, thought by police to be her relatives, lay dead in the nearby grass.

Troopers said the five apparently were a family from Naples driving to a cruise leaving from the Port of Miami.

At about 1:20 p.m. the Suzuki Grand Vitara sped south on I-75 and passed Miramar Parkway at a "high rate of speed," three motorcyclists told the Florida Highway Patrol. About a half mile south, a trooper was sitting in his parked cruiser on the grassy median filling out paperwork.

When the driver of the Grand Vitara noticed the trooper, the driver slammed on the brakes and lost control, Brammer said. The SUV veered right and rolled across three empty lanes on the interstate and continued 40 feet onto the grass.

The SUV came to rest on its wheels pointing north, opposite the direction it had been driving.

After the crash, black and red suitcases poked up from behind the back seat. What looked like a beach bag lay in the grass a few feet from a white tarp that rescuers had placed on one of the dead victims.

Troopers often park in the median to fill out paperwork and keep an eye on traffic, Brammer said. It was too soon to tell how fast the SUV was going, but the posted speed limit was 70 mph.

While the crash battered the Grand Vitara, its passenger cabin did not collapse during the rollover.

"Had they been wearing seat belts, the outcome would have been different," Brammer said, adding: "An average of three out of 10 people we stop aren't wearing their seat belts."

By Andrew Ryan - Sun-Sentinel Staff Writer