Parents, newborn among six killed in 25-car pileup in New Mexico

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iStock/Thinkstock(PHOENIX) — A Phoenix couple and their newborn daughter were among six people killed in a massive pileup near the border of Arizona and New Mexico on Monday, according to police.

Jose Elias Caraveo-Serrano, 30, Susana Caraveo, 29, and their 6-month-old daughter, Julissa, were killed in a 25-car pileup on Interstate 10 West while traveling home from New Mexico, according to ABC’s Phoenix affiliate KNXV-TV.

Caraveo was a second-grade teacher at Desert Spirit Elementary School in Glendale, Arizona.

Jill Badcock, a fellow teacher at Desert Spirit Elementary, described Caraveo as a “young sweet soul” who brought “sunshine” wherever she went.

“She was always my little Miss Sunshine,” Badcock told KNXV Tuesday. “It’s such a tragedy, for not only the community but for educators, for her friends … It’s unbelievable.”

A GoFundMe campaign for the couple, who would have celebrated their second wedding anniversary on Tuesday, had raised more than $7,000 as of early Wednesday.

Twenty-five vehicles — 18 commercial motor vehicles and seven passengers vehicles — were involved in the crashes, which resulted in six fatalities and a number of injuries, according to the New Mexico State Police.

The other victims were identified as Jose Manuel Clemente, 77, Maurella Clemente Munoz, 38, both of El Paso, Texas, and Josefina Silva, 47, of Escondido, California.

Officials with the New Mexico State Police said the collisions stemmed from a dust storm that brought high winds and limited visibility to the area.

Other fatal accidents in the Phoenix area have been attributed to dust storms in recent years.

“It’s a topographical area in which the winds come through where there’s nothing that can be done to prevent it,” New Mexico State Police spokesman Carl Christiansen said on Tuesday. “It’s never easy. It doesn’t get easier each time.”

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