Woman dies in 10-car crash
by Citizen Staff Report on Feb. 08, 2008, under Local, Special5th grade teacher rode in car rammed by pickup; medical issue the cause?
Tucson police investigate the scene of a 10-vehicle crash on westbound Speedway, just east of North Swan Road. One woman was killed.
An out-of-control pickup rammed nearly a dozen cars at a midtown intersection Thursday morning, killing an elementary schoolteacher and injuring four others, police said.
Margaret Maxwell, 62, a fifth grade teacher at Keeling Elementary School, 2837 N. Los Altos Ave., was a passenger in a car driven by her 27-year-old daughter, said Sgt. Mark Robinson, Tucson police spokesman. She died at University Medical Center.
A westbound Toyota Tundra, driven by a 22-year-old man, hit cars stopped at the intersection of East Speedway Boulevard and North Swan Road, Robinson said. One witness said the truck at one point was airborne. The order in which Maxwell’s car was hit was not available.
Robinson said the pickup driver collided with cars stopped on westbound Speedway for a red light at Swan at about 7:45 a.m.
Four people were injured, including the pickup driver, and were taken to UMC and Tucson Medical Center, Robinson said.
The identities of the four were not available from police. One, a 13-year-old boy was in critical condition, said Capt. Norm Carlton a Tucson Fire Department spokesman. Conditions on the other three were not available Thursday night.
No citations have been issued and Robinson said the cause may have been a medical condition, based on information from paramedics.
The possible medical condition of the truck driver will not be confirmed until the investigation is complete, Robinson added.
“I saw him in my rear-view mirror,” Michael Mittell, a 53-year-old physician, said of the pickup and its driver.
Mittell, who was headed to Pima Community College where he’s a teacher, said the pickup was in the median lane, boxed in by other traffic.
He got out of the “box” and “just accelerated like a bat out of hell,” Mittell said.
Mittell said his car was the first one hit by the pickup, about two blocks east of Swan.
“He hit me from behind,” Mittell said. “After he hit me, he just started accelerating again.”
“All of the other cars were stopped at the light and he just barreled into that and I saw him go airborne,” Mittell said.
The pickup lay on its side for hours as police investigated, with damage to its roof and front end readily apparent.
Robinson would not name the pickup driver, but said he was cooperating with investigators.
Initially the accident scene was chaos, said Patricia Leach, 62.
“I thought there was a bunch of dead people,” she said. “I was really scared.”
She said she was stopped at the intersection and looked in her rear-view mirror “and saw the undercarriage (of the Tundra). It hit me from behind.”
Leach, an associated broker with Realty Executives, was not injured.
About 30 officers had been called to the scene to control the area and interview witnesses, Robinson said.
Tucson police investigate a fatal wreck on westbound Speedway, just east of North Swan Road. Ten vehicles were involved. One person died and four others were taken to hospitals.
Tucson polices investigate the scene of a fatal wreck on westbound Speedway, just east of North Swan Road. As many as ten vehicles may have been involved.
