Two Texas men are accused of attending a sports car race on Saturday and causing a fire that killed four members of one family, authorities said.
The fatal crash happened around 8:15 p.m. Saturday on South Beltline Road in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, according to a police statement.
Police said two drivers, a red Dodge Charger and a white Dodge Charger Daytona, were racing when a Chevrolet Traverse collided with the red Charger while making a left turn onto Kingston Drive.
All three people on board the Traverse were pronounced dead at the scene, while a fourth passenger later died at a hospital and a fifth remained in critical condition Sunday, police said.
Police say the white Charger fled the scene of the accident.
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported that there was a family of five in the Traverse River. The parents, Jesse and Lorena Rosales, died at the scene. Two of their children, Stephanie, 13, and Angel, 6, also died. A third child, 16, survived but was in critical condition, the news outlet reported.
According to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, video taken by a witness at the scene showed the aftermath of the crash, with one car flipping over and engulfed in flames and the other’s front end being destroyed by the force of the crash.
The driver of the red Charger, Jamie Mesa, 20, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said, and the suspect is expected to be charged with four counts of highway racing resulting in death, four counts of negligence resulting in death, one count of highway racing resulting in serious injury, and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The driver who fled the scene, 22-year-old Anthony Morales, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of four counts of highway racing resulting in death and one count of highway racing resulting in serious injury, police said.
As of Thursday afternoon, it was not clear whether Mesa and Morales had hired attorneys.
Police said the accident remains under investigation.
Yvette Acosta told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth she heard screams coming from the victim’s car.
“I’m not sleeping well because of it,” she said. “It’s really hard hearing the noises and seeing them and not being able to help.”
Acosta told the news outlet that street racing wasn’t a big problem when he moved to the area 25 years ago, but it’s a big issue now, especially near the scene of the accident.
“The Beltline and 14th Street are the main areas where racing happens all the time,” she said. “It’s putting people at risk. It’s killing people. If they can think about their own family, how would you feel if this was your family? How would you feel if this was your family?”
