Rick Gunn photoA bystander carries one of two children involved in a traffic collision on Thursday. The children were unhurt, but their mother was injured.
A Dayton man was killed Thursday and a woman and two small children injured in an 11:47 a.m. collision on Highway 50 East near Deer Run Road.
According to the Nevada Highway Patrol, a red 1998 Ford Expedition driven by Claudia Y. Guevara-De Ontiveros of Dayton was heading west on Highway 50 behind a U-Haul rental truck driven by Judy Biederman of Carson City.
"(De Ontiveros) was at a high rate of speed, somewhere near 80 mph in this 55 mph zone. When she went around the U-Haul she lost control," said Trooper Mark Zacha.
He said it appears De Ontiveros passed the U-Haul on the shoulder of the road.
The rear left of De Ontiveros' truck hit the front right of the U-Haul, spinning her truck180 degrees and landing in the eastbound lane directly in the path of a black 1987 Dodge Ram.
The front of the Ram slammed into the center of the driver's side of Ontiveros' Expedition.
The 69-year-old driver of the Dodge, whose name was being withheld by police pending notification of next of kin, was pronounced dead at the scene. NHP said the driver of the Dodge was not wearing a seatbelt.
De Ontiveros was cut from the wreckage and taken to Washoe Medical Center by Care Flight helicopter.
She was listed in critical condition with a fractured neck and pelvis. Her 6- and 4-year-old sons were taken to Carson-Tahoe Hospital and treated for minor injuries. Both children were wearing seatbelts in the back of the vehicle.
"The damage occured to the Expedition right at the driver's door," Zacha said.
"This situtation is a speed problem. At that rate of speed she may have looked down and when she looked up she tried to avoid the U-Haul," he said.
Biederman said she was helping to move her mother's things into Carson City from Fernley when the accident occurred.
"She came up around me on the shoulder, bounced off my right front bumper and shot out into the middle of the road and slammed into the black truck," she said.
Biederman said she didn't notice the Expedition until it was right in her passenger window.
"I thought, 'Is this person passing me on the right-hand side?'" she said.
It is unknown if alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash.