As many as nine Asian tourists are dead in two separate multi-vehicle fatalities.
The latest accident happened in Idaho on U.S. Highway 20 near Idaho Park just outside the Montana border, reports ABC4.
Idaho State Police say 7 people died when a Dodge Ram pickup truck crossed the center divider and crashed into a tour van. The driver of the Ram truck and six of 14 people in the van died in the fiery crash, ABC4 reports.
“While ISP responds to many collisions, this was especially traumatic due to the challenging scene and number of lives affected,” ISP Cpt. Chris Weadick said in a statement to East Idaho News.
The six people killed in the van have been identified as:
- Ivana Wen, 28, of Milan, Italy
- Jianping Li, 71, of Guangxi, China.
- Li Nie, 64, of Arcadia, California, USA
- Aifeng Wan, 53, of Arcadia, California, USA
- Xiaoming Jiang, 66, of Guilin, Guangxi Province, China
- Yu Zhang, 30, of Eastvale, California, USA (identified as the van’s driver)
Isaiah Moreno, 25, of Humble, Texas is the driver killed in the pickup truck. Investigators have not determined what caused him to cross the center divider.
AsAmNews also has learned that three tourists from South Korea who have been missing since March 17 are now presumed killed in a multivehicle accident on Coconino County, Arizona.
The three were enroute from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas. When they failed to land in South Korea on March 18th, their family contacted the South Korean consulate in the U.S. for assistance.
The Sheriff’s Department tells AsAmNews it is awaiting the result of DNA testing to close its investigation.
There are two confirmed fatalities in the large multi-vehicle accident that occurred on I40 the day the three disappeared.
No additional bodies were found, but investigators did find human tissue which is now being tested in hopes of identifying the remains.
The three missing Korean tourists are Jiyeon Lee, 23, Taehee Kim, 69, and Junghee Kim, 64.
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