Six dead in Texas highway pile-up with minivan

Crash happened in no-passing zone, officials said

US Highway 59, outside of George West, Texas (Google Street View)

Six people died and five were injured in a multi-car auto accident in Texas, the Associated Press reports.

The crash occured on Friday on US Highway 59 around 6.20pm in George West, about 60 miles northwest of Corpus Christi, when a Chrysler mini van tried to overtake another vehicle in a no-passing zone, crashing head-on into an oncoming SUV and causing a multi-car pileup in the opposing lane.

"It was a pretty drastic scene," Sgt Guadalupe Casarez of Texas Department of Public Safety told the AP.

Authorities don’t believe alcohol was a factor in the wreck, Mr Casarez added.

The driver of the minivan, Xochitl Veronica Lopez, 39, of Houston, was pronounced deceased at the scene, as was a juvenile passenger, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

According to the agency, three passengers in the oncoming SUV also died: Salvador Almeda Mendoza, 47; Ilda Briones Nieves, 58; and Honorio Lazo Navarro, 74, of Ganado, Texas.

A sixth victim, the driver of a sedan which crashed into the back of the SUV, has not yet been identified, pending identification of next of kin.

At least two children were treated at the scene, the Alice Echo News Journal reports.

The Texas DPS said the accident left five others with “non-incapacitating injuries.”