Three die in crash; driver flees scene

Jace Radke

Monday, April 23, 2001 | 11:35 a.m.

Three Las Vegas residents, including a young boy, were killed Sunday night in a head-on collision on U.S. 95 that authorities say was caused by a third car that fled the scene.

The accident happened about 6:30 p.m. on the freeway north of Craig Road behind Santa Fe Station, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Alan Davidson said.

"It looks like a car and a large Ford pickup were headed southbound when the driver of the car lost control and drove into the right median," Davidson said. "The driver came back on the roadway and somehow forced the pickup across the center median and into the northbound lanes, causing the collision."

The collision buckled the four-door F-250 Ford pickup, nearly shearing it completely in two where the cab connects with the bed, and caused the other, smaller pickup involved in the wreck to roll.

The driver of the smaller pickup, Brian Lee Cooper, 30, died at the scene. The driver of the larger pickup, James Barton, 32, was in critical condition this morning in University Medical Center. Barton's passengers, Holly Barton, 33, and Benjamin Barton, 8, were killed when they were thrown from the F-250.

The force of the collision forced the two pickups across a second dirt median and onto the off-ramp from northbound 95 to the intersection of Lone Mountain Road and Rancho Drive.

Authorities are looking for a possibly new black two-door car, without plates and with heavy damage to its left front side. Witnesses said the driver appeared to be a white male, and that he had two children in the car with him.

Skid marks at the scene show that the black car also crossed the median and veered into northbound traffic before the driver gained control of the vehicle and continued southbound, Davidson said.

The medians on the stretch of 95 where the accident occurred are dirt and do not have concrete barriers to separate northbound and southbound traffic.

"Witnesses said that the vehicles involved were traveling at highway speeds, and here that means 65 to 70 mph," Davidson said. "I really haven't ever seen a truck this big with this extensive amount of damage. You could say that we were lucky that this didn't happen on a Monday or Tuesday through Friday, when there would be a lot more commuter traffic."

The driver of the smaller pickup was wearing a seat belt, Davidson said.