Five In Family Die In Wreck On Rainy Road Near Statesville

Five members of a family were killed in a wreck on a rainy highway just after 3:30 p.m. Sunday during a trip to buy party supplies for an infant, who was among the victims, police said.

One member of the family, a 13-year-old boy, survived because he stayed behind when the other members of the family took their trip.

The dead were identified as the parents, Arturo Lopez, 41, and Irene Sosa, 35; Cynthia Lopez-Sosa, 12; Danira Lopez-Sosa, 7; and 11-month-old William, who was to have a birthday, said said N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper D.J. Reid.

Arturo Lopez had driven to a party supply shop in Hickory with his family and they were on their way home in a 1996 Ford Explorer, which ran down a 12-foot embankment on U.S. 70 and overturned in a creek about two miles from Statesville.

The Highway Patrol believes Lopez was driving too fast for the wet roads.

The parents were wearing seatbelts, but the daughters in the back seat were not, the Highway Patrol said. The youngest child was secured in a child safety seat, but the seat wasn't attached to the vehicle, Reid said.

He said no one will ever know why the children weren’t properly restrained.

“I don’t know if they unbuckled their seatbelt or not, but I urge parents to keep their kids in seatbelts,” he said. “Make sure their child restraints are buckled in correctly and wear seatbelts themselves.”

The remaining child is now surrounded by family and friends.

Elaine Derman, who taught most of the children at N.B. Mills Elementary School, he and his siblings were close.

“They were all about helping each other,” she said. “They were always encouraging each other and just happy children, and always kind.”

Friends are trying to raise money to send the bodies back to Mexico for burial.