GEORGE WEST, Texas (AP) — A minivan crashed head-on into an SUV and was then rear-ended by another vehicle while trying to overtake a vehicle on a no-passing zone on a Texas highway, officials said. Six people were killed and five injured.
The crash occurred around 6:20 p.m. Friday near George West, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Corpus Christi, the sergeant said. Guadalupe Casares of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“It was a pretty dramatic scene,” Casares said.
The crash was under investigation on Monday, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. However, the ministry said in a news release that a minivan traveling south on Route 59 collided head-on with a north-bound SUV as it passed a no-passing zone. The sedan then crashed into the rear of the SUV.
Casares said the vehicle being overtaken was not hit.
The driver of the minivan, 39-year-old Xochitl Veronica Lopez of Houston, died at the scene along with the boy who was in the minivan, the police said.
The SUV’s driver, Salvador Almeda Mendoza, 47, of Ganado, Texas, was also killed, as were two passengers, Hilda Briones Nieves, 58, and Honorio Lazo Navarro, 74.
A sixth fatality, a sedan passenger, has not been named.
Five other people were taken to hospital with “non-incapacitating injuries,” the public security bureau said.
Casares said authorities so far do not believe alcohol was a contributing factor.