1 person killed in 6-car crash in west Phoenix

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Byron Wheeler was trying to get home after his shift at McDonald's, when the unthinkable happened; a fiery, fatal crash in the intersection of 59th Avenue and Thomas in front of his bus stop.

"I was sitting there, I was at the bus stop when I walked out to see the bus... that's when I saw everything," he said.

Wheeler says the fire was too intense to help the driver inside the small SUV, and at that point, he ran to the aid of another injured driver, who was inside a green pickup truck.

"He had a whole bunch of paint equipment," he said. "It looked like a screwdriver or screw-something circular object stuck in his head."

That man and three others were taken to the hospital.

Police say the man in the burning car may have died on impact.

"When it hit in impact, it exploded," Jonathan Borthert said.

Borthert was in a mini-van that was struck by one of the other cars. A total of six were involved, including a large tow truck.

Debris and evidence also landed hundreds of yards from the wreckage.

"We just tried to pull back," he said. "It hit the corner. We were just pulling back because it was coming at us."

Exact details weren't made available immediately, but once police completed their initial investigation, they determined this accident was most likely caused by a driver who ran a red light.

"There's probably going to be a red light violation of some sort by one of the vehicles, possibly a vehicle that was turning left in front of that red light vehicle," Lt. Wayne Dillon of Phoenix police said.

Witness statements, like Wheeler's, are helping investigators figure out what happened and why.

It was a terrible sight that none of them will soon forget.