Car crash at western Las Vegas credit union leaves 2 dead

Two people were killed Sunday in a two-car crash in the western Las Vegas Valley, police said.

Las Vegas police were called about 4:45 p.m. after two cars collided on Rainbow Boulevard, just south of Westcliff Drive, Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Grant Rogers said.

A white Chrysler 300 was southbound on Rainbow when it hit the side of a Toyota Corolla that was turning left into a shopping center from the northbound lanes, police said. The Chrysler then jumped a curb and hit the side of Silver State Schools Credit Union at 170 S. Rainbow Blvd.

The driver of the Chrysler, 38-year-old Charles Williams, was taken to University Medical Center with minor injuries and was later released. Police said he was not impaired, but it was unclear if he would face charges.

Police have not determined how fast the Chryler was going.

The Toyota flipped several times until coming to a stop in the southbound lanes of Rainbow on the opposite side of the credit union. Both the driver and the passenger, who was ejected from the car, died at the scene.

Neither the 31-year-old man who was driving the Corolla nor the woman who was ejected appeared to have been wearing a seat belt, police said.

Patty Rios, 41, said she was riding home in a van with her family when the driver of the Chrysler cut her them off as they approached the freeway offramp onto Rainbow. The Chrysler then hit the green light at the end of the offramp and accelerated through another green light at Westcliff, she said.

Then there was the collision.

“We saw this cloud of dust,” Rios said.

Lance Gordon, 45, of South Dakota, said he used a fire extinguisher from a nearby business to put out a small fire that started in the Chrysler. Car parts were strewn throughout the area.

“Just imagine any TV slow-motion type thing of an explosion, and that’s exactly how I saw it,” he said. “Pieces were flying everywhere.”

The intersection was closed while police investigated, but the Regional Transportation Commission reported the roads reopened just before midnight.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.

To give you a better idea of the scope of this crash: red X is the approximate point of impact. Green X is where the Chrysler eventually stopped. Yellow X is about where the Toyota stopped. pic.twitter.com/crp1B3vrat

— Blake Apgar (@blakeapgar) February 26, 2018