Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

The Arizona Department of Public Safety was not recommending criminal charges against a semitruck driver who hit two vehicles on Interstate 10 near Quartzsite in June, killing two and seriously injuring four.

The La Paz County Attorney’s Office has not yet received the DPS report, according to Karen Hobbs, chief deputy county attorney. The case will be reviewed by an attorney upon receipt of the report, she said.

The June 17 accident killed Joseph Smith, 18, who was coming home from a post-graduation road trip to California to see Major League Baseball games with three of his best friends, all recent Phoenix Horizon High School graduates.

Horizon High celebrates life of former student killed in crash near Quartzsite

Joseph Garcia, 74, also was killed. His wife, Mary Lou Garcia, was severely injured in the crash and left paralyzed from the waist down, according to a GoFundMe account for her. They had been together for 35 years and had been driving home to Sun City after attending a funeral in California.

Records show the 42-year-old driver of the semitruck had gotten adequate sleep before working but was tired at the time of the crash and failed to notice a driver flashing brake lights in front of him warning him to slow down, but there was no evidence of distracted driving, according to the DPS criminal report.

DPS confiscated the driver's phone but did not have the passcode to unlock it, and a court order to Verizon Wireless turned up "no information or data" such as call records or location information.

"After months of investigation, it was determined that no criminality was proven," DPS Sgt. Alan Haywood said Friday.

"We originally intended to charge for negligent manslaughter, but he was not over hours, showed no impairment, and could not provide the county attorney for any justification to prove a criminal charge."

Father and infant narrowly miss collision

Early in the morning June 17, a truck hit an abandoned vehicle parked on the side of the road on eastbound Interstate 10 about 10 miles east of Quartzsite. No one was hurt but by 2:23 a.m. debris was blocking both lanes, so traffic slowed to a near standstill, with people driving on the shoulder to get around the blockage, and police were on the way.

A different semitruck was headed from Ontario, Calif., to Tolleson — a route the driver said he had driven every week for a while — to deliver a shipment of bottled water. His semi was in good condition and he said he had slept enough the night before, and he wasn’t on his iPhone and wasn’t listening to the radio.

A witness told officials that he was slowing down to approach the traffic when he saw that semi approaching too quickly from behind.

The man tapped his brakes a few times to get the semi driver's attention but said he did not seem to notice, so the man sped up toward the median and narrowly avoided being hit. The man, who had his 8-month-old son in the car, saw the semi hit the other vehicles seconds later.

The semitruck driver told officers that he saw the man's car swerve but it was too late. His semi left 87 feet of friction marks from braking, but that was not enough.

A terrible accident

At 3:11 a.m., just before officials arrived, the semi hit a GMC Sierra pickup truck from behind and pushed it into the median, killing Joseph Garcia and severely injuring Mary Lou Garcia, who suffered a severed spinal cord and internal bleeding in her lungs.

The semi then hit a Honda Civic, forcing it into the rear of a stopped flatbed trailer, killing Smith with blunt-force trauma to the head and injuring the driver, Daniel “DJ” Purcell, and passengers Matthew West and Kevin Hurley. Records show all had been wearing seat belts.

One of the teens yelled for help immediately, but their car was so crushed that it took more than 1½ hours to get them out.

The four injured people were flown from the scene.

The truck driver was not injured. He had been shipping water for Niagara Bottling.

"Our hearts go out to the families of the deceased, and we wish full recoveries to those who were injured," Niagara Bottling said in a statement Wednesday.

Fundraisers for the victims

By about 8 a.m. that day, West and Purcell were responsive and talked with an officer. West sustained a broken left foot, ankle and leg, and Purcell had a fractured pelvis and right arm.

Hurley was intubated and unable to speak because he sustained lumbar, facial and mandibular fractures.

One of the teen's friends, Makenna Miller, created two GoFundMe accounts that day: one for Smith's funeral expenses and his mother, which has raised more than $22,000 since the accident, and one to cover medical expenses for the three surviving teens, which raised almost $35,000.

All three teens have since been active on Twitter, posting tributes to Smith, appreciation for each other and updates about their conditions.

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