Six family members killed after safari trip when 17-year-old drives wrong way on Texas highway

A total of six people from the same family have been killed in a Texas crash after their minivan was totaled by a pickup truck driven by a 17-year-old driving on the wrong side of the highway.

Rushil Barri, 28, was driving his family home to Irving in a Honda Odyssey following a trip to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center when the fatal crash took place.

As they joined the highway on their journey home, a Chevrolet pickup truck hit their minivan head-on.

Barri, as well as five of his six passengers, were all killed in the collision, NBC News reports.

Victims of the crash include his cousin, his cousin’s wife, two young children, and in-laws, all from Alpharetta, Ga.

In addition to Barri, the five dead passengers were named as Naveena Potabathula, 36, Nageswararao Ponnada, 64, Sitamahalakshmi Ponnada, 60, and children, Krithik Potabathula, 10, and Nishidha Potabathula, 9.

A seventh person in the minivan, a 43-year-old man, suffered critical injuries.

The 17-year-old driver of the pickup truck was also taken to the hospital with critical injuries, as was his passenger, also 17.

The injured victims were airlifted to nearby John Peter Smith Hospital and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, where they received urgent care.

Barri’s roommate, Ayyappala Bandaru, has since expressed his shock at the tragedy, saying he was alerted at 4:01 p.m. Tuesday that Barri’s iPhone had registered the crash.

“We were in shock like what just happened,” he told NBC News. “We tried reaching everyone in the car and no one is picking up.”

Barri, who moved to the US from India in August 2020, was described by Bandaru as ambitious.

“We were like brothers,” Bandaru said. “He’s actually like my brother over here. He had very big dreams. He always used to think about tomorrow. He used to be like ‘Man, we need to rule this world.”

“We came here with a lot of struggles,” he added.

Following the horrific ordeal, Sgt. William Lockridge of the Texas Department of Public Safety said it’s still unclear why the teen was driving the wrong way on the highway.

“For an unknown reason at this time, the Chevrolet pickup truck traveled into the northbound lane and struck the Honda Odyssey head-on,” he said.