FORT WORTH, Texas — Police accuse a teenager of drunkenly driving into another vehicle on Interstate I-35W in Fort Worth Monday, killing all five occupants of the other car.
The Fort Worth Police Department arrested 19-year-old Eduardo Gonzalez and charged him with driving while intoxicated and five counts of intoxication manslaughter.
Police say Gonzalez was speeding in his Camaro Monday when he rear-ended the sedan on the northbound I-35W exit ramp to Seminary Drive. Security cameras at a nearby motel show the sedan explode at 12:05 a.m., moments after the crash.
A Fort Worth police spokesperson said the car was so burned, that investigators could not initially tell how old the victims were.
"I can only imagine that it was a very traumatic scene," Fort Worth police officer Daniel Segura told WFAA.
The MedStar ambulance crew first told WFAA there were three adults and two children in the car. A woman claiming to one of the victims niece has since told WFAA that the five who lost their lives in the accident were her uncle, his girlfriend and his girlfriend's three children.
The investigation closed a portion of I-35W in Fort Worth for hours Monday morning.
Segura said there were "signs" and "clues" inside Gonzalez's car that indicated he'd been drinking. Detectives interviewing the 19-year-old also noticed "patterns" that led them to believe he'd been drinking, Segura said.
It's not clear where Gonzalez was coming from, where he was going, or how the teenager got alcohol.
Gonzalez's relatives told WFAA they did not know what happened and declined to say more. The 19-year-old was briefly hospitalized after the crash but was released to police.
Nearby business owners say exiting off I-35W to Seminary Drive can be dangerous because the ramp merges into two lanes of traffic with an obstructed view and because pedestrians often cross the dark road at night. They acknowledged, though, that no road is safe for drunk driving.
Monday's wreck happened about three miles north of the scene where a drunk driver hit and killed Fort Worth Police Sergeant Billy Randolph on I-35W one week ago. Randolph's funeral was on Saturday.
"It's hard to see our community being affected by some of the same issues that arise," Segura said. "This is a reminder of how tragic things can turn out when we let somebody else drive intoxicated."