9 Passengers Killed as Car Rams Truck

A station wagon carrying 10 people returning to Illinois from a funeral in Mexico veered off a highway and slammed into a semi-truck parked on the shoulder, killing nine people, including four children, police said today.

The dead included two couples in their 20s and children ranging in age from 4 to 10. The only survivor, 7-year-old Louis Rodriguez, was in stable condition with a broken shoulder at El Campo Memorial Hospital.

The station wagon veered off U.S. 59 five miles south of El Campo just before midnight Sunday, striking the rear of the truck, which was parked on the shoulder. The driver of the truck was uninjured.

“Two vehicles of family members had been coming back from a funeral in Mexico. They had been driving all night,” said Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike Cox.

“The first vehicle passed the truck, and the driver of the first vehicle then noticed that the headlights of the station wagon were no longer behind him. He turned around, went back and found the accident.”