Five people have died in a wrong-way crash while driving home from an out-of-state college visit, Arkansas officials say.
The five victims were identified by Sylvan Hills High School as Susanna Prime, Ava Luplow, Andrea Prime, Salomon Correa and Maggie Franco. Susanna Prime and Luplow were students of the school, Andrea Prime, Correa and Franco were recent graduates.
They had just spent a week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming visiting Jackson Hole Bible College, according to Faith Bible Fellowship Church.
“Our thoughts are with the families and school community as they grieve the loss of lives so young,” the school said in a Facebook post. “We will all miss you very much.”
The Wyoming Highway Patrol said the crash happened around 6:50 pm Sunday, Jan. 22. A driver of a Dodge Ram 3500 was traveling the wrong way on Interstate 80 and crashed into a commercial truck and a passenger car, patrol officers said.
A driver of a second commercial truck tried to avoid the crash by entering the median but struck a Ford F-150 traveling in the oncoming lanes, police said. Both vehicles “were engulfed in flames,” including the F-150 the Arkansas students were in, according to the highway patrol.
The five occupants of the F-150 died in the crash and others sustained serious injuries. The driver of the Dodge Ram was arrested “on a charge of impairment” and further charges are possible, the highway patrol said.
Lydia VanderVate, who grew up with the five victims, said it appears her “heart is broken”.
“They all had such bubbly personalities, they could get along, always laughing with each other,” VanderVate told KARK.
Quint Scruggs, a recent graduate of Sylvan Hills High School, said the girls were “always joyous.”
“I mean, there was never a dull moment, he always made you laugh,” Scruggs told KATV.
Sylvan Hills High School is located in Sherwood, approximately 10 miles north of Little Rock.
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