A US Army soldier, his wife and their one-year-old son were killed in a car crash in South Korea less than two weeks before Veterans Day, military officials said.
Eighth Army Specialist Luis Taveras, 26, his wife Lisbeth, 30, and their child Luis, died when their car collided with a tow truck, Stars and Stripes reported. The crash occurred on a curve along a one-lane road near Camp Humphreys, 40 miles south of Seoul.
The family is from the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.
“No words can accurately express the pain their friends and family are having to confront,” Brig. Gen. Steven Allen, the commander of the Eighth Army’s 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said, according to Stars and Stripes.
McClatchy News has reached out to Camp Humphreys,, where the time zone is 14 hours ahead of the eastern U.S.
The tow truck’s driver, a 27-year-old Korean man, sustained non-life threatening injuries that were treated at a hospital, Stars and Stripes reported.
Taveras came to South Korea in June and served four years in the Army. He was a quartermaster and chemical equipment repairer under Allen’s command, Stars and Stripes reported.
During his service, he was awarded the Army Achievement Medal, NBC Boston reported.
“The community that still knows him, remembers him as vibrant person who raised his right hand and decided to protect and defend our rights and our freedoms, there’s also a sense of condolences that go to them,” Former Massachusetts Secretary of Veteran Services Francisco Urena told the outlet.
Officials said the car crash is under investigation by Korean National Police and it will be investigated by the US Army, NBC Boston reported.
The Eighth US Army was “officially activated” June 10, 1944 and sent to the Southwest Pacific, according to the unit’s website.
The US Army has several military bases located in South Korea, including Camp Humphreys.
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