NORTH BEND, Wash. -- The guest of honor at an extended family Father's Day party in the Yakima Valley, his wife, and two relatives died when a car hit an elk on Interstate 90.

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I-90 CRASH SLIDESHOW: Scene At Bizarre Fatal Crash On I-90

A fifth relative was critically injured after Jesus P. Reyna swerved to avoid hitting one elk but hit another about 4:45 a.m. Sunday about seven miles east of North Bend and about 40 miles east of Seattle, Washington State Patrol Lt. Colleen McIntyre said.

She said the impact was about the same as hitting a horse.

"The elk basically took the whole front end of the car and the windshield out and incapacitated the driver," McIntyre said. "It looks like the driver never had the opportunity to brake."

The westbound four-door 1997 Honda Accord tumbled over a 60-foot embankment and landed upside down on a road below the freeway.

Dead in the crash were Reyna, 26; his wife, Josefina Alvarez, described by relatives as in her early 20s; his uncle, Rafael S. Gonzalez, 42, and Gonzalez's son, Enrique Gonzalez-Reyna, 19, all of Mabton.

Leonardo Gonzalez-Reyna, 20, another son of Gonzalez, was thrown from the car and listed in serious condition early Monday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Only Reyna and his wife were wearing seat belts, investigators said.

The elk also was killed, said Greg Tryon, acting chief of Eastside Fire and Rescue.

McIntyre said she did not know of another crash with an animal that had caused so many deaths in the state. There was no evidence of alcohol and other drugs, she added.

Elk are common around North Bend, area residents said.

"I have them come through almost every other night," said Robert Plute, who owns two acres on the east side of town. "I would say there are about 10 in the herd. You walk out at night and almost walk right into them. It's kind of scary."

Relatives said Gonzalez and his sons, farm workers for most of the year, planned to catch a flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Alaska for better paying work in a fish cannery over the summer so they could take a family vacation this fall in Mexico.

Reyna, a carpenter at the Hanford nuclear reservation, offered to drive the three and his wife, a Pizza Hut employee, went along to keep her husband company on the return, said his brother, Jaime Reyna, 23.

The elder Gonzalez left a wife and two other sons, 12 and 2. Jesus and Josefina Reyna left two daughters, 2 and 4.

Jaime Reyna said he learned of the crash Sunday morning as he was about to get some meat for a Father's Day party for his brother on a shady lawn in Mabton, a small town about 40 miles southeast of Yakima in southcentral Washington.

"I'm trying to remain calm for everyone," he said Sunday evening as dozens of relatives milled outside his parents' home, "but this is really difficult."