2 dead in I-10 crash south of Phoenix
MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. - Two people are dead following a multi-vehicle crash along Interstate 10 south of Phoenix, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said on Wednesday.
The crash happened just after 12 p.m. on Oct. 16 at milepost 169, which is about two miles south of Riggs Road. DPS says traffic was moving slowly in the westbound lanes when a box truck failed to slow down and crashed into a pickup truck and three other vehicles.
The collision pushed both the box and the pickup truck into the median and both vehicles caught fire. Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene.
The box truck driver was identified as 53-year-old Jose Guillermo Castellanos Gonzalez. The pickup truck driver was identified as 62-year-old Efrain Gutierez.
Two other drivers suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
I-10 was closed in both directions between Riggs and Casa Blanca Roads, but the roadway has since reopened.
‘The fire was so intense …'
"The cause of this was someone going too fast in the conditions and not paying close attention to slow traffic and changing situations on the roadway," Arizona DPS spokesperson Bart Graves said. "At this point, we do not know the sex of the two deceased. The fire was so intense, we’ll have to rely on the medical examiner to identify them."
Graves says a common cause of crashes is distracted driving.
"We had a fatal over the weekend on I-8 which the at-fault driver was looking at his phone and struck a motorcycle and killed him. This happens all the time across the state. Not saying that was a factor here, but certainly speed and attention were a factor," Graves said.
DPS responds to multiple crashes on I-10 between Phoenix and Tucson each year, but work to make this stretch of roadway safer is on the way.
"I know they plan to put in another lane and that's a couple of years off," Graves said.
The I-10 Gila River Indian Community project will create an additional lane in both directions to the 26-mile stretch. Construction will begin mid-2026 and end in 2028.