PHOENIX, Ariz. (KPNX) - A fiery crash on Interstate 10 killed three people, including a teenage brother and sister, and injured 14 others when a dust storm hit Casa Grande on Tuesday morning.
The pileup happened on eastbound I-10 near Casa Grande about 11 a.m. and closed both sides of the highway for much of the day. Nine tractor-trailer rigs and 13 passenger vehicles collided and created a fire so intense that state engineers planned to test the roadway before it was fully reopened, officials said.
It was the worst of a series of smashups the happened all over the state Tuesday as windy winter weather hit Arizona. Whiteout conditions caused a multicar crash that shut down Interstate 40 near Williams. There was another crash on I-10 near Marana, and the Department of Public Safety was handling more than 20 collisions and more than 50 slide-off incidents in northern Arizona.
The DPS identified the brother and sister as Mark and Katie Eide of Casa Grande. The agency said Mark, 14, was riding in an SUV driven by Katie, 17.
Investigators were still trying to piece together how their vehicle got caught in the crash.
Also killed was Edgar Ivan Medina-Vargas, 25, of Iowa City, Iowa, the DPS said.
Medina-Vargas was driving a pickup truck. He was driving between two tractor-trailers, including the one his father was driving behind him. Medina-Vargas tried to stop his pickup when the tractor-trailer in front of him stopped, but his vehicle was smashed between the two larger trucks, the DPS said.
Steve Wright, a truck driver from Temple, Texas, said he was hauling a load of plastic rolls. He said the dust storm hit so quickly that "all of a sudden, it just got dark." He said he avoided the car that stopped in front of him but looked in his rear-view mirror and saw another tractor-trailer bearing down on him.
"In my right-side mirror, I saw a big old Peterbilt coming for me," he said.
The other trucks slammed into Wright's truck, he said. He said he heard collisions all around, then everything fell quiet.
"It could have been me up there," he said later, starting to tear up. "I realize today I could die any time. . . . Some people aren't going to be able to celebrate Christmas this year."
Richard Osuna of Los Angeles and his co-driver, Luis Barajas, were on their way to make stops in Casa Grande and Tucson when their truck was hit by at least one semitruck.
Osuna, who was sleeping while his partner drove, said he heard a "loud bang."
He was able to make it out of the back of the truck before it caught on fire.
Barajas said he had to break a window to escape.
"Fortunately, I'm still alive," Barajas said.
The eastbound side of I-10 remained closed into Tuesday night. That led to big traffic backups on the main connection between Phoenix and Tucson.
Emergency vehicles flooded the area.
"It's been several years since we had anything like this in Pinal County," said Officer Robert Bailey, a department spokesman.
David Bridger, spokesman for Casa Grande, said flags outside his office at Casa Grande City Hall office were "absolutely horizontal" and "the trees are bending over at least 30 degrees."
KPNX and The Arizona Republic
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