It was about 1 a.m. when tragedy struck for a group of Rio Grande Valley residents driving back from a trip to Central Texas.
Texas Department of Public Safety Spokesman Johnny Hernandez said a GMC Yukon rolled over near the Kennedy County and Willacy County line, killing four people.
The victims were identified as Patricia Castro of Mercedes, Jason Anthony of Brownsville, Enrique Rodriguez of Edcouch and Sanricardo Ramirez of Harlingen.
A 3-year-old girl was also injured but is in stable condition.
Hernandez said it's unknown what led the driver to lose control of the vehicle, which rolled over about 3 times, but adds that preliminary evidence shows the passengers were not wearing seatbelts.
"If you're going to be traveling on long trips like this, put on your safety belt, fall asleep like that it would be better,” Hernandez said. “If you don’t, we tend to lay down and then we have no protection to keep secure in the vehicle. When you rollover, you get ejected and that's when we have fatalities."
Authorities are still trying to determine exactly who was sitting where inside the vehicle, and what led up to the rollover. However, Hernandez said the male driver survived and authorities are awaiting his recovery to gather more information on the fatal accident.
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