7-year-old killed when SUV crashes
By Gary Popp
Published in News on August 1, 2011 1:46 PM
A 7-year-old boy was killed in a single-car accident Sunday afternoon after a vehicle carrying a Seven Springs family left Emmaus Church Road at a high rate of speed and struck a pecan tree.
Jordan Perez Vasquez, who was wearing a lap and shoulder belt, was dead when authorities arrived around 5 p.m.
Both parents, Marco Alonzo Vasquez, 33, who was driving, and Debora Perez Vasquez, 26, were taken to Pitt Memorial Hospital.
Two other children in the vehicle, Eugenio Perez Vasquez, 8, and Yara Perez Vasquez, 4, were kept overnight at Wayne Memorial Hospital for observation.
Hospital officials said this morning that both children are in good condition.
State Highway Patrol Sgt. M.A. Kirby said speed was a contributing factor to the accident.
Marco Vasquez was driving the 1999 Ford Expedition approximately 70 mph in the 55 mph zone, Kirby said, before he lost control of the vehicle, crossed the center line, left the road and hit the tree.
The trooper said at the time of the accident there was torrential rain in the area.
He added that the vehicle had "balding and slick tires," which, in his opinion, were unsafe for driving.
The accident occurred 2.4 miles east of Dudley, between Sleepy Creek Road and Brewington Drive, Kirby said.
The Vasquez family resides at Pineview Cemetery Road.
Kirby said possible charges are pending upon further investigation.