Arizona student killed in a crash involving school van on field trip identified
Authorities identified 17-year-old Kiarra Gordon of Wide Ruins, Arizona, as the student who died after a school van was rear-ended by a semitruck Sunday morning on eastbound Interstate 40 near Sanders.
Gordon was a student at the the Seventh Day Adventist School Indian School in Holbrook, according to Bart Graves, a spokesperson with the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Staff and students were on a field trip to Window Rock, the Holbrook Indian School said in a Facebook post.
The collision happened after traffic slowed down due to a prior single-vehicle rollover. A commercial vehicle didn't stop for the slowdown and crashed into the small shuttle van with students and a passenger van, according to Graves.
The shuttle van had 23 occupants, including students. Gordon was declared dead on scene and three others had serious injuries that were not life threatening, Graves said.
"This is a very sad day for the Holbrook Indian School community," the Holbrook Indian School said in the post.
The vehicle was owned and operated by the Holbrook Indian School.
"Our concerns now are for our parents and families as we uphold and grieve with them. We ask that you would be patient and respectful as we work through this as a school community, and we solicit your prayers on behalf of everyone impacted by this tragedy," the post said.
The Navajo County government issued a statement to express their condolences on the crash. The statement said the community was reeling from the loss of Gordon and the injuries to the other occupants.
"The true beauty of rural Navajo County is our tight-knit communities, and each loss is a ripple felt by all. We offer our deepest condolences, as our thoughts and prayers are sent to those directly impacted by this morning’s tragic accident. ... Our strength is in our unity, and we stand united in our sorrow today," the statement said.
Reach breaking news reporter Angela Cordoba Perez at Angela.CordobaPerez@Gannett.com or on Twitter @AngelaCordobaP.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Student killed in Arizona school van crash identified as Kiarra Gordon
