Not only are Florida's roads dangerous, but even its roadsides can be very hazardous, as a weekend fatal car crash proved.

On Saturday, three people in their 20 were struck and killed by a passing car as they were standing roadside far south of Clermont.

Two women, both 22, had been in a single-car accident in Plantation, Florida -- about 225 miles south of the Orlando area. They ran into a tree at about 4:30 in the morning, a local police officer said.

A 24-year-old man stopped to help.

Moments later, the three were run down by a passing vehicle. One woman died at the scene and the other woman and the man died later at a nearby hospital.

The three had apparently been assessing the damage to the vehicle from the initial accident the two women had been in when they were hit by the passing car.

The driver of that car was hospitalized with unspecified injuries.

The mother of one of the women killed said her daughter had been studying to become a social worker. She was putting herself through school at a Boca Raton college while raising her two-year-old son.

The accident is the latest in a series of roadside crashes, a newspaper reports.

In March of last year, four people were hit and killed after they got out of their vehicles following an early morning accident on an interstate highway. A fifth person in that crash died a few days later at a hospital.

Police said the hit-and-run driver who hit the group was drunk.

Source: SunSentinel.com: "South Florida roads prove dangerous for people not in their cars," Robert Nolin, Jan. 23, 2012