Six Texas Workers Die In Oklahoma Head-On Crash

A head-on collision in the Oklahoma Panhandle Wednesday morning involving an SUV and a van full of men headed to work at a Texas meatpacking plant killed at least seven people.

At approximately 6:15 a.m., a Chevrolet Suburban was speeding along Highway 412, about 6 and a half miles west of Elmwood in Beaver County, Oklahoma. The sports utility vehicle passed a couple of trucks along the highway before it veered across the median and crashed head-on into an oncoming eastbound van.

The crash killed both drivers, along with five of the six passengers of the van.

Alejandro Mejia Lopez, 28, was driving the van. The passengers were: Julio Ramos Perez, 25; Rigoberto Toj Garcia, 24; Julio Cesar Don Juan Morino, 27; Sebastian Sucuqui Saquic, 21; and Juan Lorenzo, 56.

Francisco Diaz, 33, the sole survivor of the crash, was airlifted to an hospital in Amarillo, Texas, in critical condition as of Wednesday night.

According to Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph, all men in the van were from Liberal, Kansas. They were headed to Booker Packing Co. plant a few miles south of the Texas border in Booker.

The driver of the SUV, 55-year-old Bobby Matthews of Woodward, Oklahoma, had no passengers. Police are investigating what caused him to lose control of his vehicle.