A family of three was killed in the crash, which happened Aug. 7 in Kaufman County.
SEAGOVILLE, Texas — Two men who were driving separate pickup trucks have been arrested in a deadly crash that killed a family of three in Kaufman County earlier this month, authorities announced Friday.
Jose Abel Arriaga Contreras, 25, of Dallas, faces three counts of manslaughter, and his bond was set at $1 million on each charge.
Police said Contreras on Aug. 7 crashed head-on into a Toyota sedan, killing three people: Ana Teresa Guzman De Pena, 49; Jessica Nayeli Pena Guzman, 23; and Pena Guzman’s two-year-old daughter.
Ana Teresa Guzman De Pena was Jessica Nayeli Pena Guzman’s mother.
A second driver, James Dylan Gaddis, 30, of Crandall, was arrested on a charge of accident involving death.
Police said Gaddis crashed into the victims’ car after Contreras hit them head-on. Gaddis, who was allegedly driving a Dodge pickup truck, kept driving and left the scene.
The crash unfolded around 1 a.m. on Aug. 7 on U.S. 175 in Kaufman County, just inside the Seagoville city limits, police said.
Crandall police had received a call about a wrong-way driver on 175. The caller reported that a blue Chevrolet pickup truck was heading west in the eastbound lanes.
Shortly after that call, the wrong-way pickup crashed into the Toyota sedan. All three victims in the Toyota died at the scene, police said.
Moments later, a third vehicle, the Dodge pickup truck, crashed into the back of the Toyota. The pickup truck did not stop and kept heading east on 175, witnesses told police.
The Dodge pickup driver, identified by police as Gaddis, turned himself into police on Aug. 12.
Contreras, the driver of the wrong-way pickup truck, was flown to a hospital in Dallas with “significant injuries,” police said. He was released from the hospital on Thursday and booked into the Dallas County jail.
Police said officers suspected Contreras for intoxication, though results of a blood draw have not been released.