Blowout leads to fatal accident on I-15

Jace Radke

Wednesday, April 10, 2002 | 9:22 a.m.

All Gail Corona could manage was a whisper while standing with friends and family in a trauma center waiting room Tuesday.

"I just lost my mother," Corona said as doctors treated five of her family members at University Medical Center after an accident on Interstate 15.

A blowout caused the Ford F-350 crew cab pickup in which they were riding to slide and roll from the northbound lanes of I-15 and across the southbound lanes before coming to a stop more than 600 feet from where the blowout occurred.

None of the seven people in the four-door truck was wearing seat belts. Corona's 50-year-old mother, Helen Varela, was thrown from the truck and died at the scene.

It was the second loss in less than 48 hours for the family. Varela's husband and Corona's father, Gail Varela, died Sunday of a heart attack.

"We were going to Logandale to make funeral arrangements for my father," said Corona, who was in a second car a couple of miles ahead of the pickup. "I don't know when we'll have the funeral now."

The other six people riding in the pickup were all injured and were admitted to UMC.

Corona's nephews, Antonio Estonas, 2, and Armando Estonas, 5; brother, Charles Varela, 21; sister, Dawnette Varela, 29; and uncle, Andrew Sackett, 51, were all listed in fair condition. Armando Estonas, Dawnette Varela's 29-year-old boyfriend, was in serious condition.

The accident happened about 11:15 a.m. on I-15 north of the Apex exit, Trooper Alan Davidson, a Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman, said.

Dawnette Varela was driving when the truck's left front tire blew. The truck slid down into the center median and rolled, Davidson said.

The truck landed upside down in the desert about 50 feet from the western edge of the southbound lanes.

"The truck was a high-profile vehicle, and when a tire blows on something like that, the balance is just gone," Davidson said. "When you're dealing with that big of a wheelbase, it's hard to control when a tire blows at a high rate of speed."

The speed limit on that stretch of the highway is 70 mph, and it appears the truck was exceeding the speed limit, Davidson said.