Car carrying 4 people hits truck, killing 3
Three people killed in a vehicle crash near Lake Pleasant are believed to be residents of Uzbekistan, a country in central Asia, authorities said Wednesday.
Positive identification of the three, as well as notification of relatives, is still pending, said Bart Graves, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
The head-on collision, which involved four vehicles, occurred about 6:20 p.m. Tuesday on Arizona 74, west of the lake, closing the highway in both directions until 4:18 a.m. Wednesday as DPS officers completed their investigation, he said.
The victims, all passengers, were ejected from one of the cars involved in the crash, a gold passenger car that, after the collision, left what Graves described as "bio-hazardous material" strewn across the roadway. He did not identify the material. It is not believed that safety restraints would have saved the lives of the three, due to the severity of the collision, he said.
Investigators believe that just prior to the crash, a white passenger van was heading east on Arizona 74 and was being followed by the gold car, Graves said.
The driver of the gold vehicle tried to pass the van in a no-passing zone, striking a commercial vehicle that was heading west on the highway, followed by a box truck, he said.
There was minor damage to the white van and box truck and all occupants were uninjured, Graves said. The driver of the commercial vehicle, believed to be from Arizona, was taken to a Glendale hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, he said.
The driver of the gold car, who was wearing safety restraints, was airlifted to a Phoenix hospital and is expected to survive, Graves said.
