Seven people killed when van, car collide in northern Arizona

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - Seven people were killed Saturday morning after a head-on crash involving a van and a pickup truck carrying two California families near this northern Arizona town, authorities said.

The state Department of Public Safety in Flagstaff said a van with 18 people inside - all from several generations of one California family heading home after a trip to the Grand Canyon- collided with a truck carrying four people. The van overturned and burst into flames.

Five people in the van and two people in the car died at the scene, said DPS spokesman Mark Hall.

Two other passengers in the van were transported to a Phoenix hospital in critical condition with burn injuries, Hall said.

The 11 other passengers in the van were taken to Flagstaff Medical Center with non life-threatening injuries, he said.

Two other people in the passenger car also were transported to Flagstaff Medical for treatment of undisclosed injuries.

Sgt. Annette Reyes, a DPS spokeswoman, said the two people killed in the pickup were 42-year-old driver Mohammad Islam and 14-year-old Rafiqul Islam, both of Van Nuys, Calif. She did not immediately know why the Islams were in the Williams area at the time of the crash.

Reyes identified the five deceased victims in the van as Consuela Zapata, 52, of Los Angeles; Maria Teresa Zapata, 78, of Guatamala, Mexico; 1-year-old Anthony Lucero, of Los Angeles; Dora Lima-Zapata, 39, of Los Angeles; and Milvia Lima, 34, of Los Angeles.

The DPS was investigating the cause of the accident but witnesses said the car reportedly crossed the center line of State Route 64 about nine miles north of Williams and was attempting to pass another vehicle when the accident occurred.