FIVE members of a southern California family have been killed in southern Nevada after their van was rear-ended by an 18-year-old driver who was later arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, authorities say.
The dead were among seven family members who were in the van, authorities said. The other two - the 40-year-old female driver and a 15-year-old boy - were hospitalised in a critical condition.
Jean Soriano of California was booked into the Clark County Detention Center after he was treated and released at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Loy Hixson said.
The crash happened in the early hours of Saturday on Interstate 15 near the Utah line. Soriano's four-wheel drive struck the van from behind, causing both vehicles to spin out of control and roll near Mesquite, some 130km northeast of Las Vegas, investigators said.
A 23-year-old passenger in Soriano's 4WD was treated at the hospital and released.
Beer bottles were found in the 4WD, Hixson said, and troopers performed a blood-alcohol test on Soriano at the hospital. The results won't be known for a couple of weeks, he said.
Hixson said only two of the seven people in the van were wearing seatbelts. The five who were not buckled in were ejected, but one survived.
"Unfortunately, so many in the van weren't wearing seatbelts, and some might have survived had they been wearing them," Hixson said. "We see it so many times where people can survive simply by having a seatbelt on."
The van was carrying a couple, their children and some aunts and uncles, he said. Killed were three men in their 40s, a teenage female and an adult female.
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