Nine people, including three Cortez residents, were killed over the weekend in three separate highway crashes. Two of the wrecks occurred on the Navajo Nation in southeast Utah and Arizona; the other took place just south of Monticello, Utah.

Seven persons died in a two-vehicle crash on Utah Highway 262 between Montezuma Creek and Aneth, Utah, around 4 a.m. Sunday, reported Navajo police investigator Lt. Ivan Tsosie.

According to the accident report, the vehicles were traveling together at a high rate of speed when the lead car, carrying five people, veered off the highway, regained the road and was then broadsided by the second vehicle. Two people were in the second vehicle. There were no survivors.

Killed in the first car were Ivane Lewis, 26, of Cortez; Alvina Wilson, 20, of Cortez; Gene Etsitty, 33, of Bluff, Utah; Vern Little, 25, of Montezuma Creek, Utah; and Calvert Weston, 28, of Shiprock, N.M.

Melissa Weston, 29, of Farmington, along with Betsy Ann Martin of Cortez, age unknown, died when their vehicle collided with the first car.

The incident is being investigated by the Navajo police. Tsosie said that alcohol was a factor in the crash.

"This is one of the worst ones in recent memory," Tsosie said Monday from the Navajo Nation’s Shiprock headquarters. He speculated that the group was celebrating the birthday of one of the victims. It was not known who was driving either vehicle, what models they were, or if seat belts were being worn, he said.

Reading from the accident report, Tsosie said that both vehicles "were following each other at a high rate of speed when Vehicle One lost control and crossed the highway. Vehicle One was attempting to get back onto the highway when it was struck in its midsection. Both vehicles rolled over after the collision and slid to a rest. Alcohol was involved in the crash."

Earlier on Sunday, around 1 a.m., Navajo police responded to another traffic fatality that took place on U.S. Highway 160, west of Teec Nos Pos, Ariz. Randall Brekken, 21, of Durango, died after being ejected from his Ford truck, which had veered off the highway and then rolled 200 feet into a ditch, according to the accident report.

Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, Tsosie said, but, according to the report, Brekken was traveling at a high rate of speed before losing control.

In the third accident, an Arizona woman was killed and her husband injured when their tractor-trailer crashed and then burst into flames Saturday morning south of Monticello on U.S. Highway 191.

Gloria Murphy, 57, of Mesa was killed, while her husband, Eddie, 59, was taken to San Juan County Hospital in Monticello and later transferred to Southwest Memorial in Cortez for treatment of spinal injuries.