http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Feb09/ ... %2C00.html

Honduran Diplomat Dies in Highway Wreck
Friday, February 09, 2007


GREENSBURG, Pa. —

A Honduran diplomat was killed on the Pennsylvania Turnpike when the car she was riding in was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer driven by an illegal immigrant, state police said.

Nuria Ortiz Navarro, 31, a trade and investment promotion counselor for the Honduran Embassy in Washington was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision Thursday.

Her husband, Pablo Octavio Miranda Nigro, 33, the car's driver and another passenger were injured in the wreck about 20 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, police said. None was considered to have life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the rig, Sam P. Thompson, 32, who lives in Gaithersburg, Md., was in the country illegally from Ghana, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told police, Trooper Richard Mahokey said.

Thompson denied causing the crash when he appeared before a judge Thursday. He remained jailed Friday on charges of homicide by vehicle and several traffic citations.

Thompson's employer, Transcare Systems Inc., of Bowie, Md., declined to comment on the charges. Office manager Lara Popoola said Friday that the company believed Thompson was in the country legally. "So far, he had the proper paperwork and everything," she said.

David Hernandez, a spokesman for the Honduran embassy, said Navarro's remains would be flown to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

Navarro previously was a television reporter and was the daughter of a prominent journalist in Honduras, Hernandez said. "It's a very sad loss for us," he said.