New details emerge about deadly pileup on I-10 in Chandler
Jan 13, 2023, 12:00 PM
PHOENIX – State highway patrol authorities released more details Friday about a deadly, fiery pileup on a Phoenix-area freeway the previous day.
Five people trapped inside two burning passenger vehicles died in the predawn wreck Thursday on eastbound Interstate 10 near Chandler Boulevard, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.
The multivehicle collision began when a semitruck rear-ended two passenger vehicles into another semitruck, DPS said.
Two more cars and another commercial truck were also caught in the chain-reaction collision. Those drivers reported minor injuries, DPS said.
The driver of the first truck escaped with minor injuries, DPS said.
That man was hauling trash in an open-top box trailer and didn’t stop in time for a traffic tie-up from a previous collision. He plowed into the vehicles ahead of him, jolting them forward into another truck.
The passenger vehicles, jammed between the two trucks, burst into flames that spread to the first truck’s tractor trailer and the other truck’s box trailer.
The fire was intense, DPS spokesman Bart Graves told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday.
Phoenix Fire Department crews worked for two hours to put out the blaze, which included hazardous materials in the mix.
The remnants of the vehicles were so damaged by the fire that troopers initially thought there were only three or four of them.
Investigators with DPS’ vehicular crimes unit are looking into driver distraction as a possible factor in the crash.
The freeway was shut down from 6:15 a.m. until around 5 p.m.
