Students going to watch sunrise at Grand Canyon killed by wrong-way driver, school says
UPDATE: Vincent Ian Acosta, 25, was arrested on three counts of second-degree murder on Oct. 28 in the deaths of three college students, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
The original story is below.
Three college freshmen were driving to watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon when a wrong-way driver fatally struck the car they were in, the Arizona university said.
Abriauna Brook Hoffman and Magdalyn “Maggie” Louise Ogden, both 18 and from Clarkston, Washington, and 19-year-old Hunter Elaine Kinohi Balberdi of Kula, Hawaii, died in the crash, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Grand Canyon University said. They lived in the same suite in one of the school’s residence halls.
The three women set out early to drive north from Phoenix on Monday, Oct. 10, which is a lighter class day for students at GCU, the school’s spokesperson Bob Romantic told McClatchy News in an email.
A driver in a Toyota SUV drove southbound in the northbound lanes of Interstate 17 and struck their Honda sedan around 3:51 a.m. near New River, troopers said.
The driver also struck a Nissan sedan and a commercial vehicle, authorities said.
Two of the college students died at the scene, and one student was taken to a hospital where she died, troopers said.
The accused wrong-way driver was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, according to troopers. The other drivers had non-life-threatening injuries.
Authorities said they are investigating impairment as a factor in the wrong-way crash.
The three students were studying at Grand Canyon University and lived together at the Diamondback Apartments on campus, the university said in a tweet.
Balberdi and Ogden were pre-med students studying biology, and Hoffman was studying marketing and advertising, the university said.
“They were all really sweet,” friend Ella McGinley told KNXV-TV.
“As the GCU family joins together to mourn the tragic loss of these students, we ask that you keep their families and friends in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time and know that God is always there for us,” the university wrote.
New River is about 35 miles north of Phoenix.
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Students going to watch sunrise at Grand Canyon killed by wrong-way driver, school says."
