Date: 8/8/2008 12:33 AM
GEORGE WEST, Texas (AP) _ A car collided with a tractor-trailer rig hauling fuel oil on Interstate 37 in South Texas, killing five members of an extended family, authorities said.
San Patricio County Sheriff Leroy Moody said the five victims all were in the car, which caught fire after veering into another lane and colliding with the tanker. The tanker truck did not catch fire and the driver was not injured.
Department of Public Safety Sr. Trooper Gerald Lee Bryant identified the dead as driver Cynthia Perez, 32; Robert Perez Jr., 38; Robert Perez Sr., 60; David Perez, 23; Brittany Perez, 12, all of Corpus Christi. Bryant told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that Robert Perez Sr. and Robert Perez Jr. were father and son and that Brittany Perez was Cynthia Perez’s daughter.
The tanker was hauling a load of fuel oil from the Valero refinery in Three Rivers to the Port of Corpus Christi, about 40 miles southeast of the crash site near the small community of Swinney Switch.
The southbound lanes of I-37 remained closed late Thursday, more than nine hours after the crash.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.