Five family members died in a single-vehicle crash early Sunday in Fluvanna County, Virginia State Police said.

Joseph Alfred Scruggs, 36, of Huntersville, N.C., lost control of the rented car he was driving about 12:30 a.m. It ran off the road at a sharp curve on state Route 656 near Bremo Bluff, went into a small creek, struck an embankment and overturned onto its top.

The passengers were Carlton Eugene Washington, 47; Joseph Ross, 39; and Jason L. Ross, 27, all of Bremo Bluff; and Larry Jermaine Jones, 25, of Palmyra, police said.

Two victims were found outside the car, state police Sgt. David Cooper said.

All five people in the car died at the scene. None of them was wearing a seat belt, police said.

Cooper said the crash victims were related, but authorities did not have details about the relationships Sunday evening.

Speed and alcohol were factors in the crash, he said. Police believe the group was headed home at the time.

An employee traveling to work at the Bremo Bluff Station, a power plant overlooking the James River, discovered the five bodies about 6 a.m., authorities said.

Bremo resident Gracie Washington said she lived next door to Carlton Washington. They are distantly related.

"I know all of them," she said. "It's shocking. It really is."

She described Carlton Washington as a "nice boy."

"As far as I knew, he never got into any trouble or anything before," she said.

Joseph Ross worked as a mechanic and was a cousin of Jason Ross. "[Jason] was just a fun person," said Lisa Washington, a Charlottesville resident who is another cousin of the victims.

Carlton Washington worked odd jobs and helped his neighbors with projects, Lisa Washington said.

"They [were] all loving people," she said. "I'll remember the good times I had with them. A lot of laughter."

The fatalities brought the state's highway death toll to 290, compared with 331 at the same time last year.