A total of six people from the same family died in a crash in Texas after their minivan was totaled by a pickup truck driven by a 17-year-old who was driving on the wrong side of the road.
Rushil Barri, 28, was driving with his family home to Irving in a Honda Odyssey after a trip to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center when the fatal crash occurred.
As they turned onto the highway on their trip home, a Chevrolet truck crashed head-on into their minivan.
Barri, as well as five of his six passengers, died in the collision, NBC News reports.
The crash victims include his cousin, his cousin’s wife, his two young children, and his in-laws, all from Alpharetta, Georgia.
In addition to Barri, the five dead passengers were named as Naveena Potabathula, 36, Nageswararao Ponnada, 64, Sitamahalakshmi Ponnada, 60, and children Krithik Potabathula, 10, and Nishidha Potabathula, 9.
A seventh person in the minivan, a 43-year-old man, suffered serious injuries.
Rushil Barri, 28, was driving with his family home to Irving in a Honda Odyssey after a trip to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center when the fatal crash occurred. NBC DFW
The driver of the van, 17, was also taken to the hospital with critical injuries, as was his passenger, also 17.
The injured victims were airlifted to nearby John Peter Smith Hospital and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, where they received urgent care.
Barri’s roommate, Ayyappala Bandaru, has since expressed shock at the tragedy, saying he was alerted at 4:01 p.m. on Tuesday that Barri’s iPhone had recorded the accident.
“We were in shock, like what just happened,” he told NBC News. “We tried to contact everyone in the car and no one answered.”
Barri’s minivan was hit by a pickup truck driving the wrong way on the highway. NBC DFW The driver of the van, 17, was also taken to the hospital with critical injuries, as was his passenger, also 17. NBC DFW
Bandaru described Barri, who moved to the United States from India in August 2020, as ambitious.
“We were like brothers,” Bandaru said. “He’s actually like my brother here. He had very big dreams. He always used to think about tomorrow. He used to say, ‘Man, we gotta rule this world.’”
“We came here with many struggles,” he added.
A seventh person in the minivan, a 43-year-old man, suffered serious injuries. NBC DFW
After the terrible experience, Sgt. William Lockridge of the Texas Department of Public Safety said it’s still unclear why the teen was driving the wrong way on the highway.
“For an unknown reason at this time, the Chevrolet pickup truck traveled into the northbound lane and collided head-on with the Honda Odyssey,” he said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn