Students driving to watch sunrise killed in wrong-way crash, cops say. Driver charged

A 25-year-old driver was arrested and faces multiple charges weeks after he was accused of killing three college students in a wrong-way crash, authorities in Arizona said.

The three freshmen from Grand Canyon University were driving from Phoenix to watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon when they were struck by Vincent Ian Acosta near New River on Oct. 10, the university told McClatchy News.

Abriauna Brook Hoffman and Magdalyn “Maggie” Louise Ogden, both 18 and from Clarkston, Washington, and 19-year-old Hunter Elaine Kinohi Balberdi of Kula, Hawaii, died in the crash.

Investigators initially suspected impairment as a factor in the crash, but an arrest wasn’t made until Oct. 28, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Acosta was arrested and faces charges of three counts of second-degree murder, 11 counts of endangerment and two counts of aggravated assault, troopers said.

In addition to striking the vehicle the students were in, he also hit a Nissan sedan and a commercial vehicle, authorities said. Occupants of those vehicles suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The three students were studying at Grand Canyon University and lived together at the Diamondback Apartments on campus, the university said in a tweet.

Balberdi and Ogden were pre-med students studying biology, and Hoffman was studying marketing and advertising, the university said.

“These beautiful, smart, talented and loved freshman college students had their whole lives ahead of them,” a friend of the women said on Facebook.

New River is about 35 miles north of Phoenix.

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