A Denver mother, her two sons and two relatives from Utah were killed in a Nebraska freeway crash as they headed home from a Thanksgiving trip, authorities said Monday.
The woman’s husband was injured but survived.
“Now he is left alone,” said relative Shirley Castro. “That was his wife and his children. He lost his whole family.”
The Denver family members – Maria Avalos, 32; her husband, Vicente Ulloa, 35; and their sons Alejandro Ulloa, 3, and Ivan Ulloa, who would have turned 2 months old Monday – were riding with their Utah relatives in a Ford F-150 pickup truck heading west on Interstate 80 in central Nebraska about 3 p.m. Sunday when the driver lost control on a roadway slickened by freezing drizzle, the Nebraska State Patrol said.
The pickup crossed the median, clipped the left end of a car headed east and then struck a Dodge pickup nearly head-on.
Avalos and her sons were killed. Her husband, a front-seat passenger, survived the crash with a broken leg, broken arms and injured ribs.
Ulloa’s brother-in-law – Rafael Castro Recendez, 34, of West Valley, Utah – was driving the Ford pickup. He also died in the crash, as did his wife, Ortensia Julio, 40, Ulloa’s sister.
The driver was the only person in the pickup wearing a seat belt, authorities said. Baby Ivan was in a car seat, but it was not properly secured, said Deb Collins, spokeswoman for the Nebraska State Patrol.
Family members contacted late Monday said Vicente Ulloa is speaking to a priest about the loss of his family.
His wife worked at Kaiser Permanente and St. Joseph Hospital in Denver cleaning medical offices, family members said.
Evone Gallegos, a family friend, said the Avalos family wants to gather in Denver for a small service, then transport all five bodies to their hometown of Zacatecas, Mexico, but they are worried about the cost.
“Everyone is very devastated,” Gallegos said.
Recendez’s sister-in-law, Shirley Castro, said her family is still in shock over the accident. “The family was really united. They were always together,” she said.
A memorial fund has not yet been set up, but Castro said Ulloa is going to need money to bury his wife and children.
The occupants of the car clipped by the Ford were not injured. However, the driver of the Dodge pickup – Kenneth Husted, 48, of Lincoln, Neb. – and his 13-year-old son, Ross, suffered multiple fractures.
The accident occurred near Shelton, about 150 miles west of Omaha.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
Denver Post researcher Barry Osborne contributed to this report.
