5th person dies after chain-reaction collision on Interstate 40 near Holbrook

PHOENIX – The death count from a chain-reaction collision near Holbrook last week is up to five, authorities announced Wednesday.

Four people were confirmed dead after the Friday afternoon crash on Interstate 40, and another victim succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The incident began around 1:30 p.m. when a commercial tractor-trailer rear-ended an SUV near milepost 294, DPS said. A Jeep Wrangler and another tractor-trailer got caught up in the wreckage.

The deceased were identified as a Valley teen, a New York man and three members of a Colorado family:

• Adam Mychajliw, 17, of Scottsdale.
• Jeet Vikram, 34, of Ozone Park, New York.
• Sarah Broyel-Case, 50, of Fort Collins, Colorado.
• Sophia Case, 17, of Fort Collins, Colorado.
• Samuel Case, 51, of Fort Collins, Colorado, who died in a hospital four days after the crash.

Two other people were injured in the chain-reaction collision.

What caused chain-reaction collision near Holbrook?

“The collision occurred amid heavy traffic congestion caused by detours from winter storm-related road closures in northern Arizona,” DPS spokesman Bart Graves said in a media advisory.

It was the second deadly pileup on I-40 in two days as a winter storm rolled through the state last week. Two people died and 16 others were hospitalized after a tractor-trailer jackknifed on Thursday afternoon, triggering a collision involving 22 vehicles in Williams.

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