PHOENIX -- Authorities have released the names of the seven people who died during last weekend's accident on Interstate 10.
Lanna Flood, 51; Tara Ferris, 32; Tylor Joe Harper, 16; Tori Sanchez, 13; Jullian Flores, 12; Damion Cuadras, 11; and Dominic Cuadras, 10, died when a semi-truck crashed head-on into a van.
Flood, Ferris, Harper, Flores, and Damion and Dominic Cuadras were members of the Colorado River Indian Tribe.
The accident occurred on July 29 around 11 a.m. when a truck traveling westbound near milepost 87 (about 60 miles west of Phoenix) crossed through the median and struck the van that was heading eastbound.
The accident pushed both vehicles into a culvert, and they caught on fire.
The man who was driving the semi, Jose Mireles, 57, and his wife were airlifted to the hospital. Both are expected to survive.
"The semi truck was fully loaded ... so we look at about 80,000 pounds traveling at 75 miles an hour," explained Department of Public Safety Office Carrick Cook. "It caused so much damage to the van that we [initially] thought there was a third vehicle involved. We have determined that there's only two, and a total of seven fatalities."
Investigators have not said anything about what happened in the moments before the semi crossed the median, nor have they said was caused the driver to cross over.
