ZAVALA COUNTY, Texas – The Department of Public Safety has identified the woman killed in a head-on crash along Highway 57 on Wednesday morning.
DPS said Carmen Ruiz, 50, was driving along Highway 57 about five miles east of Batesville at mile marker 426 in Zavala County around 5:30 a.m.
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For some unknown reason, Ruiz traveled onto the wrong side of the highway, colliding head-on with a Peterbilt truck tractor semi-trailer.
Ruiz died at the scene.
The crash shut down Highway 57 for hours, forcing people to take alternate routes throughout the morning.
Several killed in separate Highway 57 crash
Wednesday’s crash was the second deadly crash to happen along Highway 57 this week.
Early Tuesday morning, the Uvalde County Constable’s Precinct 6 Office reported five people were killed in a major vehicle accident due to icy road conditions.
DPS said a Ford F-150 pickup truck stopped on the Nueces River Bridge because of an accident between two Ford vans.
Multiple passengers from the vans attempted to signal the driver of a Freightliner tractor-truck to stop due to ice on the bridge, DPS stated. However, authorities said the Freightliner truck driver crashed into all three vehicles.
Three people inside one of the Ford vans — identified as 63-year-old Pedro Urquiza, 60-year-old Estanislao Jaimes and 43-year-old Diana Lopez — were pronounced dead on the scene, DPS said.
The driver of the Ford pickup truck, 48-year-old Jose Artemio Rodriguez, was also pronounced dead after he was found at the bottom of the bridge, according to authorities.
DPS said the driver of the other Ford van, identified as 60-year-old Maria Pineda, died from injuries inflicted after the crash with the Freightliner tractor truck.
Seven other passengers were transported to a hospital for further treatment.