2 Die In Car Crash -- Five Children Among Victims In Collision Near Wenatchee

Eleven people, including five children, were killed last night when a sedan and a sport utility vehicle crashed on Highway 97-A north of Wenatchee in the worst traffic accident in the state in more than 20 years.

Both vehicles were destroyed by flames in the head-on crash that occurred shortly before 11 p.m. yesterday, 300 yards north of the Rocky Reach Dam and seven miles north of Wenatchee.

Passersby pulled the driver from one vehicle and a child from another but both died of multiple trauma from the impact before reaching a hospital in Wenatchee, said State Patrol Capt. Tom Robbins.

The other occupants of the vehicles were badly burned and dental records were needed to identify them, Robbins said. One victim was not discovered until this morning.

The dead driver of the 1985 utility vehicle was identified as Danny Adamson, 18, of Cashmere.

Robbins said they had only tentatively identified the passenger in the utility vehicle.

Seven of the nine people killed in the sedan were identified by police late this morning as driver Rigoberto N. Pacheco, 31; his wife, Norma P. Pacheco, 27; and their daughters, Norma A., 6, Lucila A., 4 and sons, Rigoberto B., 3, and Daniel M., 2, all of Manson; and Hector Sandoval, 22, a relative of Mrs. Pacheco's. Sandoval's hometown was not known. Two of the sedan passengers remained unidentified - one apparently a male relative and another whose sex and relationship to the Pachecos was not known.

Acquaintances told authorities Rigoberto Pacheco was coming home after getting his family in Mexico.

The 1985 utility vehicle was heading south and apparently crossed the centerline on a gentle curve and struck the northbound 1982 sedan head-on, Robbins said. The impact ruptured a fuel line on the utility vehicle. Gasoline sprayed over the wreckage and then ignited.

The 10:55 p.m. crash blocked the highway until 6:17 a.m. today.

Robbins said there were no indications of skid marks by either vehicle or that either of them was exceeding the speed limit.

The last crash involving more than one vehicle with a large number of fatalities was on Oct. 24, 1971, on Highway 12 near Walla Walla. Twelve people were killed in that collision.

The worst fatality crash in the state was in November 1945, when a school bus plunged off a winding road and into Lake Chelan, killing 15 students and the bus driver.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.