TOOELE — Late Friday, 10 teenagers and young adults piled into a Mazda 626 that seats just five, two even climbing into the car's trunk when the front and rear seats filled. It's likely the driver — and perhaps many of the other nine — had been drinking, police say.
The car sped past a van on U-112 about three miles west of Tooele, investigators say, went out of control and crashed into a field at 9:49 p.m. No one was wearing a seat belt. All 10 occupants were thrown from the car. Bodies, beer cans and wreckage littered the rural field, witnesses said.
Three passengers were killed in the crash. Another, the driver, died Saturday at a Salt Lake hospital.
Three others remained hospitalized with severe injuries Saturday. Three more, including two riding in the trunk, were not seriously injured.
Father Matthew Wixted said his Tooele parish would pray today for the dead, several of whom attended St. Marguerite's Catholic Church.
"They were young people with all the challenges of life and, as you might expect, ups and downs," Wixted said.
"From my standpoint it's an unbearable and unthinkable tragedy to lose so many young people, especially two from the same family."
The dead are:
Angela Aragon, 16, Tooele.
Anthony Graham, 21, Tooele.
Brooks Martinez, 20, Tooele.
Eric Martinez, 16, Tooele.
Vanessa Aragon, 16, Tooele; Vanessa Grago, 18, who Wixted said was visiting from New Mexico; Francis J. Herrera, 21, Tooele; Dustin Hillyard, 19, Tooele; Cheyanne Johansen, 18, Tooele; and Rayan Martinez, 19, Tooele, all survived.
Aragon was in critical condition and Rayan Martinez was in stable condition at University of Utah Medical Center.
Hillyard, Johansen and Herrera were all treated and released from Mountain West Medical Center in Tooele.
Utah Highway Patrol troopers and family members of the victims said all were at the Deseret Peak Complex, located between Tooele and Grantsville, on Friday night. The site is home to regular events like demolition derbies, rodeos, carnivals and fairs.
Many of those who hopped into the car, driven by Graham, were just looking for a ride home and weren't necessarily that friendly with others in the car, troopers and family members said.
Dustin Hillyard was one who climbed into the trunk. He was released from the hospital Saturday morning after suffering only minor injuries, said his sister, Calli Hillyard.
"Obviously, it was the safest place," she said of her brother's position in the car.
Asked to describe want kind of people they were, a classmate, Tabitha Wyman, said: "They're just the type that's always wanting to have fun."
UHP trooper Robert Bench said at least one of the accident victims was wanted by local police and "a couple of them" were gang members.
"At least one had charges pending where they were looking to arrest him on the spot," Bench said. He declined to say which victim was wanted by police and referred such questions to the Tooele County Narcotics Task Force, which couldn't be reached for comment.
Wixted said he has been consoling the family of Eric and Brooks Martinez, who were brothers.
"They were just grief-stricken and devastated," he said. "We know that God takes care of his people, but it's very difficult in light of the loss."
One of the saddest things about the accident, said UHP Sgt. Wade Breur, is that it could have been prevented. Instead, the driver and passengers combined three ingredients that often lead to roadway fatalities — excessive speed, alcohol and lack of seat-belt use.
"That'll teach people not to drink," said Sam Clegg, who spent Saturday morning repairing his uncle's fence that guards the field where the car crashed.
Judging by tire marks near the road and in the field, the car plowed off the road, hit an underground concrete structure with its right front wheel and then rolled into the field, where bodies where found when police arrived.
Bench, who has seen many bad wrecks, said this one was particularly gruesome.
"There was alcohol, beer cans, scattered all over the place," he said, adding, "If you got down there last night and just saw the bodies strewn out all over. . . ."
Bench said many of the lesser-injured victims are not assisting in the police investigation, refusing to talk with police.
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com