Eight-car crash on U.S. 95 kills one

Construction projects in the Spaghetti Bowl may have been a contributing factor in an eight-car crash that killed one person and sent seven others to the hospital during rush hour Monday.

Terri Lynn Mackiewicz, 33, of Las Vegas was killed instantly in the 4:30 p.m. crash.

Multiple charges are pending against Dale Martin Huebner, 44, of Henderson, who was driving the 1982 Dodge pickup the Nevada Highway Patrol is blaming for triggering the deadly collision that closed the westbound lanes of U.S. 95 between Rancho Drive and Valley View Boulevard for about five hours.

Huebner remained hospitalized this morning at University Medical Center in critical condition.

"Be patient, it's not going to get any better anytime soon," Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Scott Flabi warned motorists following the disaster.

Eastbound traffic slowed to a crawl as emergency medical technicians, firefighters, highway patrol troopers and tow-truck operators worked to remove the dead and the injured and their vehicles from the roadway.

Debris littered the landscape after the spectacular crash that began when the driver of a gray Ram Charger pickup truck apparently attempted to make a quick lane change after seeing traffic ahead of him slowing down because of Spaghetti Bowl construction, said Flabi.

The accident began about 200 yards past a sign announcing Phase II of the reconstruction of the congested Interstate 15-U.S. 95 interchange, a project expected to keep motorists in a state of anxiety at the site for at least three years.

Flabi said Huebner was in the far left lane of the interstate and apparently, after seeing the slowing traffic past the Rancho Road exit, decided to make a lane change to the right but could not because of a car in that lane.

"The driver overcompensated when he turned back to the left," said Flabi.

He said speed and inattention were probably the direct causes of the accident.

Flabi said when Huebner's pickup hit the center barrier it flipped and crossed over, losing a tire on the way, rolling and landing on the top of two other vehicles going west.

The truck bounced off the top of a Saturn, instantly killing Mackiewicz, said Flabi.

It also bounced off the top of a white 1988 Lincoln, driven by Paul Thompson, 17, of Henderson.

Thompson and Huebner were taken to University Medical Center in critical condition, Flabi said.

Also involved were Felipe Moises Rojo, 60, of Las Vegas who was driving a 1980 Ford van; Jin Choi, 27, of Las Vegas, who was driving a 1989 Honda Civic; Tiffany Suzanne Rio, 25, who was driving a 1997 Pontiac; Charles Arnold Libby, 51, of Pahrump, who was driving a 1987 Chevy Camaro; and James Richard Rogers, 33, of Las Vegas, who was driving a Ford pickup.

Rio, who barely escaped being seriously injured, said she was going west on the interstate when a truck suddenly appeared in front of her and began rolling, throwing debris everywhere.

She said the truck apparently rolled off the Lincoln and the Saturn, and those two vehicles somehow pushed her car out of the way.

Libby was one of the first in the line of vehicles involved in the crash.

He said he would have escaped but for the wheel that came off the truck.

He and his wife, Cindy, were uninjured, but their car received some damage.

Lt. Larry Wolf of the Nevada Highway Patrol said it was one of the worst crashes he had seen in 25 years.

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