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LAS VEGAS >> Las Vegas Metro police say 18 people were involved in a five-vehicle crash involving a limousine, and four were hospitalized.
A pickup driver is accused of triggering the wreck involving the oncoming limo with 10 passengers aboard and three other vehicles late Saturday night.
Police say the pickup driver, 33-year-old Cornelio Vasquez of Las Vegas, was taken to University Medical Center with critical injuries.
Several occupants in other vehicles were taken by ambulance to the hospital with minor to moderate injuries, they said.
The 10 passengers in the limo sustained varied injuries, while its driver, 44-year-old Habtamu Tegegne, suffered moderate injuries, investigators said.
According to a preliminary investigation, the pickup first struck two vehicles heading in the same direction on Rainbow Boulevard near Twain Avenue, then continued over the raised center median into oncoming lanes before being struck by the limo and a car.
The pickup rolled onto its driver’s side as it continued across the oncoming lanes, went onto a sidewalk and struck a block wall. It rebounded off the wall before coming to a rest in the oncoming lanes.
Vasquez was ejected at some point during the wreck, police said, and alcohol may have been a factor.
An investigation continues into the 10:30 p.m. wreck.
