News
11-year-old driver of 18-wheeler that crashed, killing 3
Published: May 2, 2003
HOWE An 11-year-old girl was apparently the driver of a tractor-trailer rig loaded with automobile parts that crashed into a highway overpass guardrail, burst into flames and fell onto the road below, police said Thursday. Nicole Marie Gonzales, her father Luis Gonzales, 35, and her brother Nicholas Eugene Gonzales, 3, burned to death in the early April 25 wreck on U.S. Highway 75 in Howe, Police Chief Roy Keesy said. On the day before the wreck, Luis Gonzales drove from Alma, Mich., where he picked up a load of air conditioning compressors, to his home in Muldrow, Okla., Howe police Sgt. John Cherry said. Investigators were unsure about how much time he spent at his home, but knew that he set out again around 9 p.m. April 24 with two of his children in the 2000 Freightliner tractor-trailer. Cherry said the reason the father was not driving the truck at the time of the crash may not necessarily have been fatigue, but rather health complications due to a heart condition and recent illness.