Names released in Toll Road crash

BRISTOL, Ind. – Seven people were killed when a semi-truck barreled into the back of a van on the Toll Road Thursday night.


There were three families, ten people inside the van all relatives headed from Chicago to New Jersey for a funeral.


Seven victims aged six weeks to 52-years were all pronounced dead at the scene, the three survivors were hospitalized.


This is the full list of the people who were inside the van at the time of the crash:


Family 1


Cayetano Quizhpe, 28, Elkhart General Hospital, stable condition, father/husband


Maria J. Yupa, 21, deceased, mother/wife


Edwin Quizhpe, 8, deceased, son


Franklin Quizhpe, 6 weeks old, deceased, son


Family 2


Pedro Chimborazo, 52, deceased, father/husband


Maria Antonia Yupa, 36, South Bend Memorial Hospital, serious condition, mother/wife


Pedro Chimborazo Yupa, 15, deceased, son


Family 3


(Driver) Manuel Chimborazo, 30, South Bend Memorial Hospital, critical condition, father/husband


Maria Chimborazo Pinguil, 26, deceased, mother/wife


Jessica Chimborazo, 8, deceased, daughter


Each of the survivors are from a separate family, they lost their spouses and all of their children.


“They’re going to have to deal with a lot of grief, so yea you do deal with them a little differently.” Director of the Trauma Center at Memorial Hospital, Greg Bingman said.


 Two of the three survivors, Maria Antonia Yupa and Manuel Chimborazo are being treated at Memorial Hospital; Bingman said both will undergo surgeries in the next couple of days.


“You take care of the most critical thing first, allow the patients to stabilize and then take care of the other things you can take care of later,” Bingman said.


According to Bingman, Yupa and Chimborazo suffered head, internal, and orthopedic injuries. “Most likely they will have residual effects from the injuries, but it’s way too early to tell,” he said.


Bingman said the two have a long road to recovery, speaking both physically and emotionally.  


On Friday, investigators sorted through twisted metal and broken glass of the wreckage. The minivan is barely recognizable; the backend is completely crushed.


“You never get used to it, it’s always a tragedy,” William Beckford said as he took yet another glance at the van.


A retired Indiana State Police Trooper, Beckford now works at the body shop where the semi-truck and the van are being held for investigation.


In his 37 years with the police department, Beckford said he’s never seen an accident this bad.


“Never amount of people like that killed in an accident,” Beckford said.


Witnesses told police the van may have hit a deer, slowed or stopped in the toll road an 80-thousand pound semi-truck plowed into the back of the 1998 Toyota Sienna.


The two vehicles were headed eastbound on the Toll Road, the crash happened at the 103.5 mile marker, between Bristol and Middlebury.


The driver of the 2006 Freightliner semi-truck Jesse F. Donovan, 24, from Rhode Island was treated at Elkhart General for minor injuries and was later released.


According to police and first responders, the people in the van were not wearing seat belts, “It’s sad because in a case like this, definitely safety belts, proper restraints could have made a difference,” Bingman said.


Beckford is not so sure, he said by looking at the car he is surprised anyone surprise with or without a seatbelt on, “It certain cases it can make the world of a difference, but probably not due to the type of accident that it was.”


Investigators spent Friday afternoon inspecting the minivan, taking measurements to plug into an equation to figure out the crush profile.


This will give the Indiana Police Department an idea of how fast the semi and the van were traveling at the time of the crash, then the department can department who, if anyone was at fault.


That investigation could take several weeks to complete.

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