2 people killed in accidents on I-40 in Arizona early this week identified

The Arizona Public Safety Department has identified two people killed in western Arizona traffic accidents just 5 miles apart on Interstate 40. The first crash occurred at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, about 11 miles east of the California border.

Department spokesman Bart Graves said Ralph Steven Salazar, 63, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, was driving in the wrong direction at the time of the collision. Graves said Salazar was eastbound in the westbound lanes when his Ford Ranger pickup truck struck a semitractor trailer head on.

Salazar was dead at the scene.

The second collision occurred at 4:47 a.m. Monday when one 18-wheeler rear-ended another about 5 miles east of the first accident. The truck driver who was killed when his rig slammed into the other was identified as Alex White, 34, of Evans, Georgia.

Four other people were injured in the crash involving the two big rigs and a passenger vehicle. The second accident shut down the westbound lanes of the interstate for five hours.