Department of Public Safety (DPS) Troopers, along with Pima Police and Fire, AZ-DPS Hazmat, Lifeline Ambulance, and other emergency personnel were dispatched to Milepost 328 on Highway 70 Sunday morning in response to a three vehicle, head-on collision that occurred at approximately 9:51 a.m.
According to a DPS report, a white-colored Hyundai Santa Fe, driven by a 23-year-old woman from Surprise, Arizona, was traveling west-bound between Ft. Thomas and Pima. She was following a Dodge truck pulling a horse trailer loaded with horses, also headed west-bound with a male driver and a male passenger.
The driver of the Hyundai Santa Fe, identified as Elizabeth Darlene Mary Dawson of Surprise, Arizona pulled out to pass the Dodge truck with the horse trailer in a no passing zone and ran head-on into the front of a 2015 Peterbilt Semi-Tractor pulling a tanker hauling Sulfuric Acid. Dawson was killed instantly and her vehicle was destroyed.
The Peterbilt semi caught fire but the driver was removed from the semi before a fire started. The semi received extensive damage. A HAZMAT team responded to oversee the off-loading of the acid to another tank.
The driver of the Peterbilt sustained a broken leg and a head wound. He was taken by ambulance to Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center where he was treated and released later that day.
Neither the driver of the Dodge truck with the horse trailer nor the passenger were injured but the semi did scrape along his horse trailer. The driver was able to remove the Dodge truck and trailer from the scene.
