Thread: NC: Iredell wreck kills 5 in family

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ ... 407893.htm

Iredell wreck kills 5 in family
SUV runs off U.S. 70 outside Statesville
KYTJA WEIR
kweir@charlotteobserver.com

A wreck amid rainy conditions just outside Statesville on Sunday afternoon killed five members of a family, leaving alive only a child who had stayed behind when the family went shopping.

The 13-year-old boy lost both parents, his 12-year-old and 7-year-old sisters and his 11-month-old brother.

It was among the deadliest single-vehicle wrecks in the Charlotte region in years. The children were not secured with seat belts, according to the N.C. Highway Patrol.

The Lopez-Sosa family was about to celebrate the first birthday of the youngest, William. They headed to Hickory's Party City on Sunday to buy plates and cups for the party, said N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper D.J. Reid.

But on the way home, just two miles from Statesville, their 1996 Ford Explorer ran off the left side of U.S. 70, just east of Stamey Farm Road near the municipal airport. That's about 45 miles north of uptown Charlotte.

It was raining at the time. Reid said the sport utility vehicle was driving too fast for conditions, though was likely traveling at the posted 55 mph speed limit.

The SUV crashed down a 12-foot embankment at 3:40 p.m., overturned and landed in a creek.

When emergency crews arrived, they found the roof crushed against the slope of the embankment.

The youngest, William, would have turned 1 on Thursday, Reid said. He was belted into a child seat but the seat was not secured in the vehicle, the trooper said. The baby died at the scene.

The boy's father, Arturo Lopez, also died there. He had been driving the SUV and was wearing a seatbelt.

The oldest daughter, Cynthia, 12, died en route to Iredell Memorial Hospital, according to Iredell County EMS. Danira, 7, died once there.

It took an hour and 15 minutes to extract Lopez's wife from the wreckage, said Iredell County EMS shift supervisor Tim Martlock.

Irene Sosa, 35, was rushed to the same hospital, then taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem. But Reid said she died during surgery.

More than a thousand people die on N.C. roadways each year but it's unusual for so many people to die in a single-vehicle crash.

On Christmas Day, two people were killed in a head-on collision, one in each vehicle, on rain-slick roads in Rowan County.

At the end of 2003, seven teens from Statesville were killed when they crashed a Dodge Intrepid into a creek after a police chase.

The victims of Sunday's crash also lived in Statesville, sharing an apartment on West Front Street with extended family.

The parents and two oldest children were from Mexico, Reid said. The two youngest were born in the Statesville area.

The trooper visited the family's home Sunday and told the 13-year-old boy that his immediate family was gone.

Reid said he and investigators found the party supplies for William's birthday amid the wreckage. The boy told him the family was planning to celebrate the upcoming birthday together.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/10694618/detail.html

Five In Family Die In Wreck On Rainy Road Near Statesville

POSTED: 9:20 am EST January 8, 2007
UPDATED: 5:57 pm EST January 8, 2007

STATESVILLE, N.C. -- Five members of a family were killed in a wreck on a rainy highway just after 3:30 p.m. Sunday during a trip to buy party supplies for an infant, who was among the victims, police said.

One member of the family, a 13-year-old boy, survived because he stayed behind when the other members of the family took their trip.

The dead were identified as the parents, Arturo Lopez, 41, and Irene Sosa, 35; Cynthia Lopez-Sosa, 12; Danira Lopez-Sosa, 7; and 11-month-old William, who was to have a birthday, said said N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper D.J. Reid.

Arturo Lopez had driven to a party supply shop in Hickory with his family and they were on their way home in a 1996 Ford Explorer, which ran down a 12-foot embankment on U.S. 70 and overturned in a creek about two miles from Statesville.

The Highway Patrol believes Lopez was driving too fast for the wet roads.

The parents were wearing seatbelts, but the daughters in the back seat were not, the Highway Patrol said. The youngest child was secured in a child safety seat, but the seat wasn't attached to the vehicle, Reid said.

He said no one will ever know why the children weren’t properly restrained.

“I don’t know if they unbuckled their seatbelt or not, but I urge parents to keep their kids in seatbelts,” he said. “Make sure their child restraints are buckled in correctly and wear seatbelts themselves.”

The remaining child is now surrounded by family and friends.

Elaine Derman, who taught most of the children at N.B. Mills Elementary School, he and his siblings were close.

“They were all about helping each other,” she said. “They were always encouraging each other and just happy children, and always kind.”

Friends are trying to raise money to send the bodies back to Mexico for burial.

http://link.toolbot.com/journalnow.com/53913

Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Hispanics target of safety effort
Wreck Sunday shows problem with use of seat belts, experts say

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RALEIGH

Three children who weren't properly restrained were among five members of a Hispanic family killed Sunday in a car accident, a tragedy that child-safety advocates have been trying to prevent among Hispanics in recent years.

The accident killed 11-month-old William Sosa, who was in a car seat that wasn't belted to the vehicle, and his sisters Cynthia Sosa, 12, and Danira Sosa, 7. The older children weren't wearing seat belts when their family's sport utility vehicle ran off a wet highway and down an embankment, N.C. Highway Patrol troopers said.

Their parents, Arturo Lopez, 41, and Irene Sierra Marquez, 35, also were killed in the wreck on U.S. 70, near Stamey Farm Road west of Statesville. Both were wearing seat belts, authorities said.

The state has been trying to reach Hispanics with public-safety campaigns in recent years, but child-safety advocates said they can't reach everyone.

Melvin Rogers, the battalion chief of the Mooresville Fire Department, said yesterday that language barriers can make it more difficult to teach Hispanics about safety issues. Rogers coordinates car-seat checks in Iredell County, where the wreck occurred.

For the past few years, a program called Nuestra Seguridad (Our Safety) has tried to educate Hispanics on car safety with financial support from the governor's Highway Safety Program.

Administered by the nonprofit group El Pueblo in Raleigh the pro-gram uses media campaigns, presentations and education materials to get people to buckle up and use car seats correctly.

"We're making headway, but the number of Latinos in general is going up, and we're basically having to go back to square one with all the new people coming in so that we're educating people constantly," said Tony Asion, the director of public safety at El Pueblo.

Asion said that car accidents are the leading cause of death for Hispanics in North Carolina.

Many Hispanics come to North Carolina from Mexico and Central America, where seat-belt and car-seat rules aren't enforced the way they are in the United States, Asion said.

"With as much education as we've had here, it still happens. When you take people who've had no education, it's going to happen with them a lot more," Asion said.

Both parents in the Statesville wreck had come from Mexico, said Elaine Dearman, a family friend.

The family left behind 13-year-old Erick Sosa when they went to get birthday-party supplies for nearly 1-year-old William. Erick is in the care of several aunts and uncles, Dearman said.