Four people riding in a golf cart were killed, including two minors, when a suspected drunk man driving an SUV ran a stop sign at an intersection in Galveston, southeast Texas, causing a chain-link accident, police said. .
The authorities arrested Miguel Espinoza, 45, as a suspect.
He is charged with four counts of intoxication manslaughter and bail is set at $400,000.
Miguel Espinoza in a photo provided by the Galveston Police Department.AP
The crash happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday in Galveston, an island city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston, police said.
Galveston Police Sgt. Derek Gaspard said that after the SUV failed to stop, he struck a pickup truck, which then crashed into the golf cart that had six people on board.
The golf cart and the truck were traveling in opposite directions through the intersection on a street that did not have a stop sign.
Authorities did not immediately release the names and ages of those killed.
But family members who left balloons and stuffed animals at the scene Sunday told ABC13 News that a grandfather was driving the golf cart with his wife, his niece and his three grandchildren.
Police said the golf cart driver was pronounced dead at the scene, while a woman and two minors were taken to a hospital, where they died.
The other two passengers, an adult and a minor, were hospitalized Sunday in critical condition, it was reported.
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Espinoza, who lives in the Houston-area city of Rosenberg, and a person with him in the vehicle suffered minor injuries.
They were taken to the hospital and later released.
The occupants of the truck were not injured, Gaspard said.
An area filled with golf carts
According to family and friends, all members of the family are from the Rosenberg area, and the grandparents often took their grandchildren and relatives to Galveston to vacation and enjoy the beach.
"Both of them were brought here all the time," Sylvia Martinez, a family friend, told ABC13 News.
"It's summer and school is about to start. I'm sure they wanted to go out and have some fun before school started," she noted.
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Gaspard said he believes the golf cart, which was rented and carried by members of two families, was legally operating on the city street.
Galveston Mayor Craig Brown said golf carts have become "a pretty prolific mode of transportation" for residents and visitors to the tourist area of the island, which sits on the Gulf of Mexico.
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Brown said the city has in the past implemented ordinances intended to make its operation safer and will consider additional ordinances at an upcoming City Council meeting.
"I went out last night," Brown said, "there was a lot of movement on the island and there were golf carts, both residential and rental, on every street."
