Three people were killed and seven others were injured in a series of chain reaction crashes that shut down portions of U.S. 75/Central Expressway in Richardson for more than eight hours early Friday morning.
The traffic pileup began just before midnight Thursday evening when a Cadillac SUV stalled in the southbound HOV lane of the Central Expressway near Renner Road, according to a Richardson Police Department press release. The driver and six passengers got out of the vehicle to wait for help to arrive. As they were standing outside the vehicle, a Lexus SUV crashed into the stalled vehicle, and then a Dodge sedan crashed into the back of the Lexus.
One of the passengers from the Cadillac, 19-year-old Alyia Khalid, was struck and killed at the scene. The driver of the stalled Cadillac and four other passengers were transported to the hospital for treatment of their injuries. The seventh occupant of the stalled Cadillac was not injured.
The driver of the Lexus, identified as 27-year-old Haley Taylor, and her 6-year-old daughter were both taken to the hospital, where they died from their injuries.
Both the driver and the passenger of the Dodge sedan sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to the hospital.
A fourth vehicle, a Nissan sedan, was caught up in the traffic chaos and was struck once by the Dodge sedan and once by an 18-wheeler that was passing by, but no one in the Nissan or the 18-wheeler was injured.
Debris from the multiple crashes spilled out across the highway, causing damage to two other vehicles.
All southbound lanes of traffic on the expressway were closed down from Plano Parkway southward while first responders, investigators, and clean-up crews worked the scene.
At about 8:40 a.m., Richardson police announced the roadway had reopened. The RPD Special Crash Investigation Team is continuing its investigation.
