Glendale, Arizona: One Killed, Two Hospitalized in Loop 101 Crash at Union Hills Drive

One person was killed and two others were taken to hospitals early Tuesday after a car crashed into an underpass on the Loop 101 Agua Fria Freeway in Glendale, troopers on the scene told Arizona's Family. The crash happened just before 5 a.m. in the northbound lanes at Union Hills Drive, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The Department of Public Safety, known as DPS, is the state agency that patrols Arizona freeways. Troopers responded to the crash at about 5 a.m., and the northbound lanes were closed at Union Hills Drive while crews worked at the scene.

Northbound lanes closed, then reopened

FOX 10 Phoenix reported serious injuries in the crash on Tuesday morning. The northbound lanes stayed closed at Union Hills Drive for part of the early morning and have since reopened. The southbound lanes were not affected, DPS said.

Arizona's Family reported that the freeway is back open. Troopers on the scene confirmed to the station that one person was killed in the wreck and two others were hospitalized. The conditions of the two people taken to hospitals were not known on Tuesday morning.

The Loop 101 is the belt freeway that carries much of the West Valley commute through Glendale and Peoria. A full northbound closure at Union Hills Drive covers the start of the morning drive for neighborhoods across north Glendale, and drivers had no official detour route in the first DPS reports. The reopening came later in the morning, after the investigation work at the underpass.

What officials have not said

DPS did not release any other details on injuries or what caused the crash, FOX 10 reported. No names have been released for the person who died or for the two people hospitalized. DPS has not said how many vehicles were involved beyond the car that hit the underpass, and it has not said whether speed or impairment played any part.

That leaves the basic facts where troopers left them on Tuesday morning. A car struck an underpass on a freeway that thousands of West Valley drivers use before sunrise. One person did not survive. Two more went to hospitals with injuries whose severity is still unknown in public reports.

Troopers are investigating. DPS usually releases the names of people killed on state freeways after families are notified, and any finding on the cause of this crash will come from that investigation. Until then, the department's public account is short: a crash just before 5 a.m., a closed freeway, a reopening, and three casualties, one of them fatal.

Drivers who use the Agua Fria Freeway through Glendale should expect the investigation to produce more detail in the coming days, including the identity of the person killed. For Tuesday, the headline fact is the one troopers confirmed at the scene: one dead, two hospitalized, and a freeway back open after a deadly early morning crash.