(November 29, 2008)—Relatives were mourning Saturday after seven members of an extended Texas family died when an SUV plunged off an unfinished bridge and into a river in northern Mexico.
The Thanksgiving Day accident killed three adults and four children.
The dead included three generations of the same family.
The dead were identified as Carlos Rey Madrid, 39, and his wife Olga, 27; Madrid’s mother, Margarita Madrid Gonzalez, 52; Rey’s children Danny, 7 and Gael, 2; Kaylinn Ortiz, 7, and David Lopez Hernandez, 5.
Neomi Machuca, a family friend, said the extended Rey family lived in a cluster of three small homes on a rural road near Waxahachie, about 30 miles south of Dallas.
Machua told The Dallas Morning News that the Reys enjoyed barbecuing on weekends and playing soccer in their yard.
Family members gathered in the Rey's home around a table displaying family photos and five burning candles.
A nearby vase was stuffed with donations from friends and relatives to help defray the cost of funeral bills.
The group was driving from Dallas to visit family in Mexico when the driver, following a dirt road, tried to cross the bridge before dawn Thursday.
The driver realized too late the bridge didn't span the Conchos River, and the vehicle fell upside down into the water.
Authorities say there were no signs or barriers keeping traffic off the bridge, on a dirt road near the border town of Ojinaga.
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